


Twenty Seconds or Twenty Years

by InsertACatchyPennameHere



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anyway I Stan Stardew Valley, But not every straight-passing relationship IS straight, Canon Compliant, Collection of short stories, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Pride, I Am a Tad Very Obsessed With These Characters, I know some of the relationships tagged are straight-passing, I love all of them, LGBTQ Themes, LGBTQIA+, Look I Would Die for These Characters, Look for Warnings at the Beginnings of Chapters, Multi, Needle/Medical mentions in Chapter 30, Partial Nudity in Chapter 14, Partial nudity in Chapter 30, Polyamory, Pride Month Prompts, Prompted Writing, Short Stories, Some suggestive lines, Stay Safe Beautiful Readers, Themes of Mental Health, Title Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trans Characters, Yep I'm Doing Another One of These, and lots of blushing, chapters will be tagged appropriately, lgbtqia, lots of kisses, more realistic, pride month, themes of mental illness, writing prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:40:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 56,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24502513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsertACatchyPennameHere/pseuds/InsertACatchyPennameHere
Summary: In honor of Pride Month, a collection of short stories featuring the bachelorettes and bachelors of Pelican Town. Sometimes things fall together exactly how they are imagined, and sometimes love is found in the most unexpected of places. Simultaneously based on prompts by cody is away (Amino) and hollenka99 (Tumblr), multiple pairings."Have I known you twenty seconds or twenty years? Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close, forever and forever?" ~Taylor Swift, Lover
Relationships: Abigail/Emily (Stardew Valley), Abigail/Haley (Stardew Valley), Abigail/Sam/Sebastian (Stardew Valley), Alex/Haley (Stardew Valley), Alex/Player (Stardew Valley), Elliott/Haley (Stardew Valley), Elliott/Leah (Stardew Valley), Elliott/Player (Stardew Valley), Emily/Sandy (Stardew Valley), Emily/Shane (Stardew Valley), Haley/Leah (Stardew Valley), Haley/Penny (Stardew Valley), Harvey/Shane (Stardew Valley), Maru/Penny (Stardew Valley), Maru/Sam (Stardew Valley), Penny/Leah (Stardew Valley), Penny/Sebastian (Stardew Valley), Sam/Sebastian (Stardew Valley), Sam/Shane (Stardew Valley), Shane/Emily/Abigail (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 37
Kudos: 103





	1. Tutoring [Penny/Haley]

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I refuse to post my new Stardew story/project because I want to finish my almost-completed WIP! I will be motivated by my excitement to begin a new thing while lovingly completing the other! 
> 
> Also Me: HEY LET'S DO A DAILY PRIDE WRITING-PROMPT CHALLENGE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The most unexpected visitors are often the most influential ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, my incredible guys, gals, and non-binary pals! ♥♥♥ This story collection is meant to be a daily prompt-upload for Pride Month! Of course, my health is forever tainted by chronic illness and my life tends to be chaotic with activity,, so though I may try my best, I am hopeful y'all understand. I just want y'all to know that my lack of ability/time/energy to upload diligently has zero to do with my love for this account, my stories, and my hobby. 
> 
> Much love! ♥

**Day One Prompts: First Meeting and Hugging**

Of all of the people that Penny was anticipating who may come into the library while she was there, Haley was admittedly not one of them. It was not as though this was a particularly unpleasant surprise- the blonde girl could be unnecessarily prickly, but the redhead was not easily bruised- but it was still jarring to have someone banging the front doors sharply and beelining straight for her as though the other woman wanted to fistfight.

“H-Haley??” Penny stuttered from her usual spot on the ground, stumbling over herself as she struggled to right herself with the aid of the already unstable tabletop before her. “I-I’m sorry, can I help-?”

“Yes you can!” Haley interrupted, each word sharply emphasized as it left her glossy lips. “I want you to teach me!”

“You…Pardon me, you want me to teach you…?” The redhead replied slowly, her mind still positively reeling from the other’s dramatic entrance to this otherwise quiet sanctuary.

“Yes, that’s what I said,” the slightly younger woman retorted, her captivatingly bright eyes trained on her with such intensity that she began to worry she may wither away beneath them.

“I…I-I’m sorry, Haley, but I’m really not sure I understand,” Penny managed around the lump that seemed to be ever-growing in her throat. “What is it exactly that you want me to teach you? I need you to be a little more specific.”

Sighing with evident frustration, the blonde pulled a wrinkled up brightly colored piece of paper from her purse. Before she even laid it out across the tabletop, Penny recognized it as one of the advertisements she had been hanging all around Zuzu City as well as Calico Desert and in town in order to garner more business tutoring children.

“You taught those kids all the time before they finally got a proper school set up here,” Haley said flippantly, as though her explanation should have already been obvious. “If you can teach them some stuff about the trees or whatever, you can teach it to me...Right?”

“W-well, yes, of course!” Penny stammered, her eyes scanning over the half-ruined piece of cardstock between them as she tried to summon a better means to ask what she needed to know.

“Great.” Haley tossed her masses of curls behind her shoulders and strode over to the one of the tables that had proper chairs pushed beneath them, wasting no further time seating herself and resting one perfectly toned leg over the other. “Okay, go on, Nerd Girl. Teach me.”

Penny had never felt so horrifyingly exposed as she did under the critical gaze of the most beautiful woman in Pelican Town. Haley thought lowly of her and made no polite attempts to hide it or deny it, and how could anyone blame her for thinking she was better than her? Haley had been able to be driven to school every day, even being gifted a car the day she turned sixteen. She owned more clothes and accessories than Penny and Pam had combined, so many so that she had never seen the girl re-wear an outfit. Haley had always been able to get whatever she desired whenever it occurred to her, and Penny was just an unassertive, demure caretaker for her alcoholic mother who just so happened to offer tutoring services to whoever would be willing to take her.

But before she resigned herself to taking a seat across from the other girl and struggling through any material she could recall until something resonated, it occurred to Penny that for the first time in her life, _she_ was in charge of someone similar to her in age. For the very first time, somebody like Haley was looking to _her_ for guidance, even going so far as to trust that whatever she was told by her was completely reputable and true. If anybody here was in the position to make requests, it was Penny, and with that in mind she straightened her posture and walked calmly to stand before the impatiently waiting blonde.

“Haley,” she prompted as firmly as she dared, which she was rewarded with by the two blue eyes gazing directly at her once again. “I would be happy to help you with whatever subjects you would like to know more about, but I need to know the subject or subjects that you need help with. Also, if we are going to have a tutoring session, I’m going to need you to have a notebook, something to write with, and any books that your teachers may have given you for the class or classes.”

“Oh my Yoba, that is so much stuff! I didn’t know I was going to have to find all of that crap!” Haley huffed. “Look, are you going to help me or not?”

“I would be happy to help you, but I am not talking to you with disrespect, so I would appreciate the same curtesy from you.” Penny could hardly believe such bold words had left her mouth, and by the expression she was receiving from the other girl, Haley shared the sentiment.

For a few moments that felt like eternities, Penny feared that the other girl would stomp off as haughtily as she had entered. Then, as if a valve had been released somewhere inside her, Haley slumped forward, both of her feet going to the ground as she pushed her face into her delicate, perfectly manicured hands.

“I can’t fail any more work, or I might not be able to pass my classes,” she mumbled in obvious distress. “And my jerk of a boyfriend totally thinks I’m just some cheap whore that’s too stupid to notice when he flirts with my friends or sneaks around with whoever else he likes to see. I heard him say that himself to his own stupid friends! And you know what, I didn’t want to believe it, but…Well, maybe he sort-of has a point. I was kind of hoping you could pass some of your smarts on to me, okay?”

Her own defensive barriers immediately crumbled, and Penny found herself walking over with sudden haste and pulling her schoolmate into an embrace. Haley seemed to hesitate for a moment before slowly wrapping her arms around Penny, her face burying into the crook of her neck after another few moments of pause. As she held the slightly younger girl, Penny could not help but notice how her perfume smelled sweet and fruity, nor fail to acknowledge how soft her curls were and how warm her skin was to the touch despite the slight chill of the library.

“Any person who would say or think those things about you does not understand what a complex and unique person you are,” Penny said softly, as though she were speaking to one of the children she cared so deeply for. “And they are certainly not worth the title of ‘friend’ or ‘partner’ if they do not treat you and see you as somebody valuable, rare, and perfectly smart in your own ways.”

There was a small sniffle before Haley pulled back ever-so-slightly, and when those piercing blue eyes were revealed to have tears gathered, Penny felt as though her heart may spontaneously combust. “You…you don’t think I’m stupid?”

“Nobody is stupid,” Penny replied automatically, then, upon noticing how the blonde seemed more crestfallen, continued. “And I certainly know you are not! Nobody who was stupid could post such gorgeous photos online of everything she sees, and a stupid person certainly could not be the co-captain of the cheerleading squad.”

“Yo-you’ve seen my photography on my page?” If Penny didn’t assume she knew any better, she would almost say the redness now tinting Haley’s cheeks was a blush. “I, uh…Didn’t know you were into that kind of thing.”

“I don’t really post, but I do follow you.” Now it was her turn to flush brightly, unable to hold the other’s ever-intense stare.

There were several moments of quiet between them, the only barely audible sounds coming from Haley dabbing at her eyes and nose with tissues from her purse and Penny twisting the fabric at the bottom of her shirt around with the anxious energy beginning to teem from her. And then, with the same determined purpose that she had entered this area with, Haley got back to her feet and grabbed the pencil that Penny had been writing on her own homework with to write something on the crumpled-up flyer still on the table.

“Look, you can just send me a list of what you want me to bring,” Haley was saying, her curls cascading in front of her face even as she stood back up properly. “…I’ll bring you some cuter pens, too, and we’ll meet here at the same time tomorrow, okay?”

Hardly sure how she could possibly have room to disagree, Penny nodded along. “Yes, of course.”

“Great!” Haley brushed her hair from her face and turned as though she were about to leave while Penny moved to pack up her own things, having decided she was entirely too flustered to continue any of her own work for now.

Before the auburn-haired girl had time to realize that her new companion had turned back and approached her once more, she received a kiss to the cheek, one that was audible enough and intentional enough to leave behind some of the gloss over Haley’s lips. “Oh, and thank you, Penny.”

As she watched the blonde beauty walk back toward the exit of her most sacred place of refuge and control, the demure redhead found she was unable to put words into what all she had agreed to in this first meeting between she and Haley, two ends to two completely opposite worlds. Yet, as she looked to the eight digits cutely applied to her own advertisement, Penny found she was nevertheless ready to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	2. Checkered Patterns [Harvey/Shane]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harvey decides something simply has to be done about Shane's man cave, and, well, Shane is insecure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I intended for this one to be short. I intended for the last one to be short, 2,000+ words on each later, I am beginning to wonder when I will ever learn that my version of 'short' is not very short at all...
> 
> (Also, let me say it one more time: Short.)

**Day Two Prompts: Asexual Flag and Kiss**

Relenting Harvey as his official primary caregiver for all of his medical shit felt impossible to Shane, but at least it meant that they could finally move in together. Unfortunately, this also meant that his partner was able to finally see all of the faults that came with wanting to spend their lives together, and it had already caused quite a few disagreements between the two in the three months they’d been sharing their new home. When Shane finally came back home after a lengthy session of Journey of the Prairie King at around 9 PM, his head feeling muddled with all of the caffeine from the Jojo Colas he’d downed and entire stomach aching from all the pepper poppers, he could tell something was wrong before he even made it into his personal room.

Harvey was knelt under the sink, seeming to be unaware that he had entered, and was grumbling to himself as he rummaged around in the unusual location. As Shane slowly drew nearer, it began clear that his Harvey- his sweet, dorky, mild-mannered, considerate Harvey- was _cursing_ under his breath with increasing frustration as he peered beneath their sink. As a matter of fact, the other man’s appearance was positively unkempt despite how he had undoubtedly been tending to his clinic and then destressing afterward, his hair grimy with oil and messy as well as his five o’ clock shadow being patchy and only half-shaved.

“A-HA!” Harvey exclaimed abruptly, sitting back on his legs as he triumphantly held up some kind of cleaning product.

Unfortunately, the suddenness of his success was hardly what Shane was expecting, and he found himself letting out a string of random profanities as he stumbled back from his boyfriend. Unfortunately, he promptly tripped over his own two feet in doing so and found him back-down with the wind knocked out of him before he could even attempt to recover. Harvey seemed just as surprised to see how, given how he immediately shrieked shrilly and dropped the bottle he had just found. He also, in an unintentionally similar manner, jumped so hard that he lost his balance and fell outright into the floor when he couldn’t catch himself in time. There were a few moments of pause for the two men to regain their mental bearings, to remember where they were, who they we were with, and realize exactly what happened, and then Harvey was scrambling to his feet and trying to help him up, all while profusely apologizing, of course.

“I-I’m so, so, so sorry dear, I had no _idea_ you were standing there, oh my Yoba are you alright?? Are you hurt, dear Yoba, I’m so sorry-!”

“Harv!” Shane interjected, apparently more sharply than intended to, given how his boyfriend immediately flinched and shut his month tightly. “Harv, hon, I’m alright. Just got a little spooked, ‘s all. I would take the help up, though.”

Face coloring in the same pink blotches that it always did when he got flustered, Harvey graciously helped him to his feet, even going so far as to steady him with one hand on his shoulder and the other resting on his hip. The two hovered in place there, so close that they could feel the others’ body heat, faces only a few inches away despite their notable height difference as they locked eyes. It was more natural than Shane could have ever imagined it would be for their lips to meet now, eyes closing, passion evident in something as innocent as a welcome-home kiss. Never could he have imagined that someone as adorable, sincere, and intelligent as Harvey would love somebody as fucked-up, broken, and as burdened by baggage as him. He found it pretty ridiculous for his boyfriend to be the one apologizing so frantically over something so simple, so easy to solve, when Shane was the only one who should ever have to apologize for anything. _He_ was the only wrong that could ever exist in Harvey’s orbit as far as he was concerned.

“You don’t have to pull back from me,” Harvey reassured gently. Shane never could understand how he could pick up the subtleties he apparently displayed when he himself didn’t even notice them. “You are the love of my life and being with you has been one of the greatest blessings I have ever had.”

Now it was Shane’s turn to blush, complete with him more outwardly pushing his too-damn-perfect partner with the same affection that both of them knew he held for anyone he was close to. “S-shut up, nerd. What were you doing under the sink, anyway?”

The hesitation and guilt immediately registered on Harvey’s face, as if he were a child caught trying to steal a cookie from a jar, and Shane narrowed his eyes suspiciously in turn.

“Look, my love, I really feel like I have given you more than ample time to tidy up in your ‘man cave’ within your own accord-” The flustered doctor began, but he didn’t have to say anything more for the dots to be filled in.

“You did _not_!” Shane sputtered, immediately hauling ass toward his dedicated-for-himself area of the house, and finding that it had, in fact, been massively changed. “Harvey, you dick!!”

Harvey looked completely crushed, but at the moment Shane was far too pissed off to care. “Shane, I know you don’t like anyone touching your things, but you had muddy footprints all over the floor! The trash and spills were beginning to attract insects! Something had to be done!”

“You couldn’t have just _asked_?!” Shane demanded. It was a bullshit excuse and they both knew it, but what else could he say?

“I have! Multiple times, persistently!” Harvey understandably rebutted, looking as though he may cry. “And furthermore, there is no reason that I have given you not to trust me with your belongings! I placed everything that was not junk exactly where I had found it once it was wiped off-”

“And how are you supposed to judge what is and isn’t ‘junk’? It’s _my_ stuff!” Shane snapped. “You could have thrown away sentimental stuff just because it didn’t look clean enough for you! How would you like it if I went in your little geek cave and messed everything up in it?!”

Now the tears were shining in Harvey’s eyes, and the wounded expression he now wore made Shane immediately regret what he had said.

“Harvey-”

“N-no, I believe you’re…quite right,” Harvey interjected, his gentle tone wobbling as the moisture began to spill over and down his cheeks. “I should have at the very least asked y-you for permission. I…I am sorry, Shane. I will leave you be.”

By the time Shane registered that his partner was leaving and moved to stop him, Harvey had already disappeared out of the front door. He immediately cursed, then did so again and again, all while kicking the ground, pulling at his hair, slamming his hands against the walls until they were hurting like his heart. He was such an immature asshole that he made the best person in his life cry and leave the house all over something as considerate as cleaning up his messes, and now he was certain that this was going to lead to the event that he had been dreading since the two of them got together. Harvey was going to spend time away from his bullshit, realize what a mistake he had made by not only getting with him but by having an entire house built for the purpose of sharing it with someone like him, and he would leave him for good. Yoba, he needed a beer. Actually, he needed about ten, and a microwavable pizza, and then maybe he could be numb to the reality that would soon be fast balling into his life.

He was just about to open his first can, the microwave already humming with power, when he spotted one of Harvey’s signature rags on the floor. It had initially seemed ridiculous that a man slightly older than himself insisted on owning so many checkered pattern fabrics- in his closet, on the furniture, in the drawers- but now it was something he liked to look for when he went out so he could snap a picture or even bring it home for his lover. Now one of the same checkered washcloth was laying in the middle of his newly cleaned carpet, and he had definitely fucked things up with the man he loved, and he couldn’t seem to find the will to even open the can. He fucked things up with everyone…His two dead best friends, the two people who decided that _he_ of all of their options should be their daughter’s godfather…every other failed romantic interest he ever had…Marnie…Jas…God, Harvey had even been insisting that they finally her move in with them, for them to properly be her parents, and now he had fucked this up for her, too.

There was no telling how long he spent where he sank down to, his arms over his head and face between his knees, but the sound of the front door opening shocked him into finally stirring. He felt certain that he damn near jumped out of his skin when Harvey walked back through the door with a whole-ass cake in hand, _his_ expression apologetic, and undoubtedly prepared to apologize for something that wasn’t even his wrongdoing.

“Harv!” He exclaimed, immediately hauling himself to his feet when his partner again flinched at his abrasive tone. “Harv, sweetheart…No. Let me talk first, okay?”

Though he looked reluctant, Harvey gingerly set the frosted treat to the side and stood with incredibly endearing obedience, as though he were a child who had just been thoroughly chastised. Shane closed the space between them, wrapping his arms around his partner and even putting a hand behind Harvey’s head so that his face could be pressed into his shoulder. The affect was immediate; Harvey immediately slumped against him, his shoulders hitching slightly as he tried to steady his suddenly hiccupped breathing, and Shane felt like his whole chest was going to explode with guilt and self-loathing.

“I was wrong to blow up on you like that. You…you were just trying to help, and besides, my room _was_ pretty gross,” Shane said hesitantly, pulling his love closer as he felt the tears dampening his shirt. “I shouldn’t have overreacted. I know that I…I’m irrational sometimes, and I get into these weird moods and have these stupid ass triggers, and it really has nothing to do with you, but I take it out on you and it hurts you…Sometimes it feels like I can do is hurt people, Harv, even if you try and say that it’s not true, even if my therapist says it’s not true, and…Yoba’s panties, I’m off-track, but the point is… _My_ point is…I’m sorry, sweetheart. I…I’m so sorry, and I can’t promise it won’t ever happen again because that would be a load of shit, but…Well, if you want to keep putting up with me, I’ll keep trying to be better. I-I can and will promise that…Okay?”

Harvey gently pulled away once he said the final word of his apology, and for a moment, Shane was certain that the inevitable had indeed come. But then Harvey lifted his hands from where they’d been on his back and gingerly wiped away tears that had begun to cascade down his own face without him realizing it, and his medical man-of-his-dreams gave him a tender smile, and he just as sure that he had to be dreaming if he was truly this lucky.

“I believe you, and because of that and because I know you, I accept your apology and forgive you,” Harvey said in the same gentle, soft voice he used around his patients (and Shane, as it had turned out.) “But I am sincere in saying that I will take some of the blame for this as well. I could have just as easily waited for you to return home before driving home my point that the room had to be cleaned, or I could have done it with you supervising or otherwise helping. I am very sorry that I violated your personal space in a way that triggered you, and I’ll do better going forward as well.”

Shane was very sure there was no way in hell he could ever find words to express his feelings in response to that, so he brought their faces ever closer and hovered his lips directly over his lover’s, silently asking for permission. Harvey conceded at once, and the two of them kissed and hugged and wept in both joy and for the remainder of their negative feelings, and Shane was once again reminded that he was a very lucky man. He was also very in love with Doctor Harvey Webber, and Yoba or whatever other force might potentially be out there willing, he was going to marry him, and have him as Jas’s other guardian, and maybe even have a family of their own one day. Surely it had to possible if everything so far was, too.

“Shall we go make up properly?” Harvey murmured in his ear, and before he could even express the reoccurring anxiety he had about having any intimacy beyond kissing, cuddling, and the occasional foreplay, his absolutely perfect partner gestured to the expectant cake. “Er…Well, I do not care to eat it, but I could always feed it to you~”

Shane could not help but grin as he turned back to the microwave, punching in the numbers to reheat up his previously abandoned pizza. “Only if you let me feed you some Cuisine de Pepperoni, Mister Health.”

Harvey made a displeased face, one that was scrunched up and frankly adorable. “Perhaps I could feed those to you and, er…Make a nice fruit tray for you to give to me, dearest?”

The second they made eye contact again, they both dissolved into bright, unashamed laughter, and Shane finally began to believe that maybe, just maybe, they would be alright forever after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥ What LGBTQIA+ ships would you all like to see next?


	3. Daily [Elliott/Pre-Farming Farmer]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elliott finds himself more and more enamored with a new muse, one who works at his usual coffee shop and, that has graced themselves into his life at the perfect time. Pre-Stardew Valley for both characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read 'coffee' as part of the prompts and my brain immediately said '!!! Coffee shop AU!!!'

**Chapter Three: Coffee and Caught Looking Their Way**

Being an aspiring novelist that spent long hours in his favorite coffee shop, occasionally pining after the occasional customer or barista, sounded incredibly romantic and aesthetically pleasing in prospect. Living the reality of it, in all of its’ bustling and irritable commuters, unenthusiastic servers, constant noise and endless distractions, was far, far less appealing, and yet it was what Elliott was confined to deal with.

It was not as though it was entirely his fault, so he could at least take comfort in that. It was also a temporary arrangement, and that he found himself repeating to himself as a mantra with every pain that came with his current lot in life. His own home was not a welcome place for his creative pursuits, and if he were to attempt to remain there instead of being thrust into the chaos of the public, he would be constantly interrupted, overscheduled so he was unable to focus, or even worse, relentlessly mocked and patronized for what he aspired to do with his life. Elliot had certainly had more than enough of that in his formative years, so when it became apparent that his family would think nothing of his excuse that he was able to complete his college coursework the most effectively around his ‘peers at the coffee shop’, he found this to be his one solace to truly be himself.

Despite his massive amount of familial wealth, he was unable to directly access it despite being nearly twenty-five years old, and so he was simultaneously unable to obtain a respectable job (because what could he possibly need one for outside the family business?) and unable to get the funds he would need to live an independent life away from their oppressive, prying eyes. At this point he had fully determined for himself that this means of controlling him was intentional, and they all evidently thought he was too airheaded or stupid to figure as much out, but despite his long-standing revelations there was still not much he could do about it. And so, reluctant as he was to brave the madness of a popular coffee shop day after endless day, still he went without fail and attempted to write the novel he depended entirely on to finally be his ticket away from his miserable life.

As it often did, the chiming of the bell above the entryway distracted Elliott from the scene he had to suffering over the completion of for nearly four full days. No matter how he attempted to re-hone his attention on his written words, all of which seemed completely nonsensical as he re-read what he’d managed in the past three hours, he finally gave into his urge to glance up and see who had entered now. Being a resident of one of the most bustling metropolises in the country meant that it was rare to see very many of the same faces throughout the course of one’s day, but given how he himself came here at approximately the same time and remained for his typical ten hours on a daily basis, he had grown accustomed to spotting those nearly as regular if not identical in frequency to him. When he glanced up, he half-expected to see one of them; perhaps the lady with the poodle always in her bag, or the old man who never seemed to be without a cigar in hand or mouth. Instead, he found that this patron to be someone entirely new, and unlike the thousands he had encountered in the numerous months he’d had this routine, this one caught his gaze for much longer than 97% of the rest of the population did.

“Yoba, I’m so sorry I’m late!” This person was stuttering, their eyes locked onto the barista’s that was standing expectantly behind the cash register with a bemused smile on her face. “Traffic downtown is always more overwhelming than I ever anticipate it to be, and I had no idea employees had private parking, so I was looking for a space for, like, twenty minutes-”

“Augie, you know that being ten minutes early is not the same thing as being late, right?” The female barista teased with evident affection in her words. “Come on, let’s get you suited up and I’ll start your briefing.”

Flushing at once, ‘Augie’ gave her a grateful grin and pulled off their knit beanie and scarf combination, releasing their richly colored, excellent maintained lavender hair from its’ confines. “You’re the best, Leah.”

Try as he might, Elliott seemed to be unable to tear his gaze from this utterly radiant human as they made their way through the shop and joined Leah to go into the staff-only area. They were not gone long, and the rest of the day turned into a kind of game which Elliott attempted to sneak glances of this magnificent individual while working away at the scene before him with invigorated purpose until it was finally rewritten and completed to a satisfactory place. As he paid for his final coffee (which he was thankful was not wrung up by Augie, as he imagined he’d have been too flustered to be comprehensive) and made the journey back to his vehicle, he found himself humoring the idea that this new barista had somehow become his new muse. Of course, even in his own head he knew how silly that sounded when he had not even exchanged words with this person, but surely it meant at least a little something that he had been able to overcome his writer’s block once they entered the room…

After that fateful first day, Elliott’s daily routine altered immediately, so much so that he found himself embarrassed by the reality of how quickly interested he become in this person he did not properly know. He became accustomed to smiling politely at Augie every time they crossed paths, no matter how briefly, and he found himself unable to cease stealing glances throughout the times they were both at the coffee shop no matter how engrossed he had recently become in his work. Even his writing seemed to have shifted, the novel having transformed into somewhat of a romance alongside a complex murder mystery, and he could not find that any of his characters and so many of their motivations, backstories, and interpersonal dynamics made as much sense without this recent development when he realized this shift had occurred.

Ever the more unusual and exhilarating, he could almost swear that Augie seemed to take a somewhat mutual interest in him as well. They had regularly begun to speak to each other by way of small talk and ordering by the end of the first month of Augie’s employment, and by the middle of the second month, they had begun to ask each other questions such as what he seemed to be so intently working on the daily and the numerous pins and buttons that adorned many of Augie’s bags, jackets ,and lanyards. Elliott was almost certain he had seen Augie’s brilliant grey eyes gazing on him from his peripheral vision at least a few times, but of course every time he worked up the nerve to check, his interest’s gaze had shifted away if it had been upon him previously. Yet, despite this seemingly joint interest that he and Augie took with each other, Elliott seemed to find himself utterly without any eloquence to express his fascination and ever-growing romantic interest in this new muse that seemed to have stolen their way into his heart. It frustrated him to absolutely no end, and he had spent countless hours in the odd hours of the night attempting over and over to write a letter to express his feelings when it seemed to be so impossible to proclaim them aloud, but nothing every seemed to be good enough to present to someone who had become so special to him.

It all came to a head when Elliott finally found himself caught, his eyes locking unmistakably with Augie’s in one of the moments where he went to glance at them. It was immediately clear that Augie had been anticipating as much, too, as they immediately grinned at him with a mischievous sparkle in their eyes that sent him blushing so profusely he feared he may faint with embarrassment. Once more, he found himself too overwhelmed with his evidently unhidden feelings of passion and intrigue to approach them, but just as he was about to command himself to rise and finally, _finally_ ask this fascinating, gorgeous, completely unique crush of his out for lunch or dinner, a venti order of what he instantly recognized as his most favored beverage was placed in front of him, and then he and Augie were only inches apart instead of the unusual counter or several feet that had been dividing them for just over four months now.

“A-ah!” Elliott stammered, scolding himself immediately for acting in a way that he was anxious may put off his crush. “Pardon me, but…Well, I suppose I do not remember ordering this.”

Augie- whose nametag stated their name was _actually_ August, as he realized with a new wave of mortification at his own lack of attention to such a detail- let out an adorable snort and gave him another mischievous grin. “You hadn’t yet, but I figured you might want to if you wanted to talk to me again, stranger.”

“O-of course,” Elliott said uncertainly, unable to help but to laugh himself when August did so themselves, their nose wrinkling and expression showing nothing other than the friendly openness that he had hoped endlessly would still be there if a day where they truly _talked_ ever came. “August…Would you by chance do me the honor of taking you out for lunch sometime? I have not wanted to be so forward for fear of it putting you off, but I simply cannot contain the affections I have felt for you since we first encountered each other. O-of course, please do refuse this if you find that to be the most favorable thing for you to do, but…Well, it would be a great pleasure for me to acquaint myself better with someone as clearly exceptional and radiant as you are.”

“All of these romantic, eloquent words for me, and all it took was my finally confronting how you look over to me? I should have done so sooner!” August teased affectionately, their own cheeks dusted a beautiful pink, and Elliot felt as though his heart could not possibly be fuller.

“So…It shall be a date, then?” He asked hopefully, his own undoubtedly dorky grin unable to be contained a moment longer.

August took the cylindrical container that held his coffee, turning it to face him to reveal how they had written ‘Augie’ and eight very special digits in an incredibly fanciful font. “It shall.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥ What LGTBQIA+ ships would you all like to see next?


	4. Five Steps [Leah/Penny]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmares do not always cease once dreams come true, but this reality gives way for the kind of love that is the most soft and comforting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do not the length of this chapter fool you for a single second: Soft lesbians in love are my absolute weakness, and I have officially made myself ship these two even harder. Expect more tales from them in the future, beautiful readers. ♥

**Day Four: Watching a Movie and Flag**

“H-hey, honey…”

Leah was elbow-deep into painting the recently completed wax sculpture of a rainbow shell when her wife’s soft, slightly hoarse voice drew her out of the massively scaled project. She’d been enamored with finishing this piece for her upcoming art exhibition, particularly with this particular event was going to feature so many other artists and diverse works, but it was no question that her spouse would come before her self-imposed deadline. Penny stood in the doorway to their bedroom, her coppery-red hair completely free and messy around her face as she rocked slowly, sleepily, in place. Her pale pink nightgown was ruffled up around her thighs rather than where it was meant to nearly reach to her knees, but given the pained look reflecting in her sad emerald eyes, the potential of her darling having roused for intimacy quickly became the furthest thing from Leah’s mind.

“What is it, angel?” The ginger-redhead asked immediately, grabbing one of her nearby washcloths and beginning to scrub away the damp paint splattered on her hands and arms so she could go to hug Penny as soon as possible. “Why are you awake?”

“I….” Penny’s face was contorted with a kind of pain defined by shame. Because of the distinctiveness of this expression, both of them were intimately familiar with what was almost always the cause of this brand of distress.

“Nightmares?” Leah interjected with knowing gentleness. Penny immediately gave a tiny nod of ascent, so she wasted no time in extending her arms for her and gathering her into her lap once she quickly padded over.

The two of them sat in that position for a few minutes, simply taking comfort in the other’s presence. In their closeness it was easy for Leah to hear how her wife’s heartrate, which was quick and panicked when they first embraced, had slowed substantially just by doing this. Once the thrumming of her love’s heart fully seemed to back to normality, Leah concluded to herself that it was an appropriate time to move onto Stage Two of her five-step Comforting The Love of Her Life ‘program.’

“How about a little snack?” Leah asked softly, gingerly brushing the tangled hair away from her wife’s tear-stained face. “We can have whatever you like: Savory, fresh, sweet…”

“Oh, honey, I wouldn’t want to make you cook for me-” As was expected, Penny immediately began to weakly protest being pampered, which was an unfortunate side effect from all those living with her abusive mother.

Leah just as quickly pressed her pointer finger against her lady’s lips, giving them a gentle but lengthy kiss before she spoke again. “You aren’t making me do anything, my sweet little muffin. I _want_ to help make you feel good and to comfort you in any way I can.”

Penny’s face grew as flush as a ripe strawberry in springtime, a trait of hers that Leah was endlessly endeared by, before she finally relented, “Well…Muffins do sound n-nice…”

“Poppyseed muffins for my perfect little muffin it is!” Leah decreed with an affectionate tickle to her wife, a gesture that immediately dissolved her spouse in shy, delighted giggles as she squirmed away to the couch for sanctuary from the playful attack.

Given that her refrigerator had been lovingly referred to as preservation for all greenhouse goods, it was not long before all of the materials had been gathered and were mixed into a rich batter. The kitchen grew warm by the oven’s warmth, and Leah found herself pausing to appreciate how her wife’s painting job in this area of this house in particular had completely altered the atmosphere. Her once aged walls, all of which had been peeling from the several layers of unsatisfactory attempts she had made when she first moved into this cottage, were now replaced with fresh hardwood from Robin and painted all of the bright colors of the most vibrant sunset that the two of them had once seen and photographed on one of their first dates. Penny had been relentlessly private about her project of painting each room of what was now _their_ expanded home before they formally moved in, and the results still made Leah almost every time she saw them all of these months later. As for the newly dubbed breakout artist of Stardew Valley, she was completely confident that she had been privileged enough to fall in love with the very best person in the entire country, and the reminder of that motivated her to be swift and diligent with the rest of the preparation and cleanup of their soon-to-be-shared midnight snack.

Step Three was to warm her spouse up externally. After all, Penny was always prone to shivering and curling in on herself if she was frightened or shaken up, and she already knew from fading wintertime that her poor girl despised being cold. Leah opened up the hallway closet and retrieved one of her most prized possessions, the very blanket that she had been gifted by her dear Elliot at the Feast of the Winter Star during his first year in the Valley. It was the lesbian pride flag, and it was one of the softest- if not the softest- covering that she had ever possessed in her life. She walked behind the couch, where her Penny was curled into a cute little ball as she hugged one of the throw pillows, and spread out the fabric silently before allowing it to billow out and drift down onto her giggling partner.

“This is so cute!” Penny gushed affectionately as admired the flag-fashioned blanket. “And so big and comfy…I can’t fill it up all on my own~”

“Don’t worry, my sweet, I’ll be right there,” Leah assured affectionately, giving her a kiss on each cheek before preparing and bringing two mugs of hot cocoa for them to share.

It was time for Step Four: Cuddling her while selecting a feel-good movie. The two immediately moved into their usual snuggling positions, Leah’s arms wrapped around Penny as the smaller girl sat between her thighs, her back against her upper torso and head resting gently on either of her sturdy shoulders. The feel-good movie naturally came from one of the most influential companies of multiple generations of childhoods, especially because of its’ new streaming site featuring nearly every animated, live-action, and series-lengths productions it had ever produced and continue to make. They chose their telling of the story of Rapunzel- one of their mutual favorites- and had just finished the short that came before it when the oven timer signified their treats were fully cooked.

After a brief period where they reluctantly had to part, the two women happily munched on their muffins while the others cooled in proper storage and the movie played. By the time they had sang each song- Leah taking the masculine parts with her alto-tenor range and Penny taking the feminine ones with her clear soprano- and the climax of the movie ascended and then concluded, Penny had fallen asleep once again, her breathing even and eyelids fluttering to indicate her pleasant dreaming. It was that Step Five could be completed, with Leah easily wrap her wife into a cute little blanket burrito and carry her back to their bed and tucking her in with as much tenderness as she possibly could.

She could go back to her project and stay up for a couple of more hours, Leah supposed once she had cleaned up from their setup. However, then she imagined her Penny waking up and reaching for her so the rest of her dreams were pleasant and her waking hours felt safe, and she decided that it could wait until the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	5. Rooms Apart [Elliott/Farmer]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elliott's fourteen-heart-event, in which he receives just as many letters and doting from his most adored spouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am very in love with August and Elliott, as you all may be able to tell~ (And the length is not as much as it possibly could be because I am both catching up on prompts and because it is late and I am Very Tired despite my adoration for this ship. ♥) 
> 
> CONTENT ADVISORY: Sexual implications, foreplay implications, but nothing explicit (which is very intentional)

**Day Five: Pansexual Flag and Letters**

_My dear August,_

_The first reading went well, though the audience was a bit smaller than I’d hoped. Still, I sold enough copies of the book to pay for my (bug-infested) hotel room!_

_In a few hours, I leave for Zuzu City. If yesterday’s reading was a warm-up, this next one will be a true napalm blast…_

_I miss you very much. Remember to eat well! Oh, and don’t forget the leftover crab cakes I put in the fridge…_

_-Love, Elliott._

Some would undoubtedly call him meticulous for keeping a personal copy of the letters he sent his spouse’s way, but Elliott found that is only improved the communication that he would be sharing in this long week they were apart. He finished re-reading the entry he had sent his love’s way before gingerly opening the letter that was sent to him. He took special care to preserve the cream-colored envelope, setting it over into the folder he had purchased specifically for the letters they would be exchanging daily on this trip before beginning to read the perfumed letter inside.

_My sweet Elliott,_

_I am thrilled to find that your reading was successful! I am absolutely certain that you will be drawing in huge crowds from the city; who in their right mind would not want to fawn over my incredible husband and his legendary writing? I certainly don’t think it’s possible, though I trust you will ward off the fangirls, fanboys, and fan-gender noncomfortists (hey, that’s me!) at arms’ length~_

_Wait, bug-infested? I did not read that correctly, surely! Your agent is going to face my wrath the second you two return to the Valley. And for Yoba’s good graces, Eli, all you had to do was request hotel money if it was not provided! I’ve closed enough for a proper hotel room. I encourage you to leave your joke of an agent in the bug-infested one, and so help me Yoba if you try to return this money to me, I will-_

Elliott would be completely mortified if anywhere were to read the intimate words written beneath their spouse’s declarations. They were all in concerns to the intimate foreplay they shared- and what could he say for them other than that they were mutually incredibly kinky- and he found himself rubbing at the intense heat emitting from his cheeks and biting his lower lip as he reached the end of his darling’s loving but strict promises. He decided to himself that he would not defy these loving domestic demands, especially when they ensured he slept comfortably and without the anxieties of never feeling clean for the rest of the week.

_I miss you more than I could have ever fathomed I would even despite how you know I utterly adore you. In that same breath, I am more proud of you than I could ever put to words, but I assure I will continue trying to do so as you flourish and make everyone in your life overflow with joy at this, the second of your exceptional successes that will follow this career of yours. I will think of you as I enjoy these crab cakes tonight (as well as wonder how you managed to sneak these past me into our fridge!), as well as imagine our sweet reunion once you have completed this victorious celebration of your very first novel._

_All my love,_

_August._

Elliott lifted the letter to his chest and hugged it tightly, inhaling the scent that his spouse had graced the pages with before folding it neatly into the envelopes along with the enclosed gold bills. He would be so much of the same in anticipating how he would be able to see them again- he was already feeling as though he were tiring of the city life in comparison to their domestic settling in Pelican Town- as well as how he was reminded of why they left their bustling metropolitan lives in the first place. He resolved that he would not allow his partner to fret that he was not enjoying himself all the same, as he was, and that it would be the first thing he ought to mention when he wrote to her as soon as the impending reading had concluded. (And, of course, as soon as he got a new hotel room squared away…)

As he looked out of the window of this room for the final time before going down to cancel this reservation and find a better place to sleep that night, Elliott thought only of the star visible only from their valley, and whispered an affectionate goodnight to his love.

Though he was not aware of it fully, August did the same for him, and they both slept easier for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	6. Entirely New [Abigail/Sebastian]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confessionals over video games. These two are softer than they will ever admit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If somehow I wasn't a multi-shipper before I took on this project, I most certainly am now. These two are Very Baby and we Gotta Protect

**Day Six: Playing Video Games and Surprise**

“…Can I talk to you about something?”

Abigail looked over to her best friend for a moment, immediately causing her sprite to be killed and causing her curse loudly. “Can we talk while kicking ass??”

“Well, obviously.”

“Alright, cool; lay it on me.” Abigail flopped back onto her beanbag chair and settled in to listen while trying to beat the enemies on ‘Journey of the Prairie King.’

“Okay.” Her best friend paused audibly after saying that ascent, and the two of them were completely silent for at least five or so minutes as they worked alongside each other to finally beat this impossible game. “…Have you ever felt like how you look doesn’t match how you feel on the inside?”

She snorted on a small laugh initially but decided to clarify the action when another pregnant pause made the air fill with a sudden tension. “I mean, yeah, hon. I dye my hair all the time, I’ve got over five tattoos…Sure I do. Why do you ask?”

Another long pause, and then, in a rushed mumble, her closest friend made a massive confession. “Because I don’t feel like a girl, okay? I…I just don’t.”

The shock of the statement caused both of their sprites to die yet again, but it was the farthest thing from Abigail’s mind as she took in what one of the most significant people of her life just confided in her. This was absolutely significant, and yet she knew her most believed companion well enough to know that _he_ hated anything becoming a big deal in regard to his life. He didn’t like attention, he didn’t like being doted over, and he certainly didn’t like feeling as though he were being patronized no matter how sincere the concerned person was. With all of that in mind, Abigail determined that she should approach the rest of the conversation just as steadily and calmly she would handle any other topic with him and began a new co-op game. Even from her peripheral vision, she noticed how some of the tension immediately left his shoulders, and she knew she must be at least somewhat on the right track.

“So do you think you’d like to, like, use male pronouns?” She asked in an intentionally nonchalant tone.

This time, he did not hesitate in his reply. “Yes.”

“Alright, no problem, man,” Abigail assured while giving him a quick, reassuring grin. “There’s really only one thing left to ask, then.”

His shoulders tensed up immediately. “W-what’s that?”

“Relax,” she implored in a light tone to counter the way her heart immediately began to pound. Much to her relief, he seemed to concede. “I just wanted to know what name you want to go by now.”

“Well…I’m not a hundred percent settled on it, but…” He said slowly, hesitating visibly and even looking over to her fully in a silent ask for reaffirmation.

She conceded despite how their characters died because of it, locking eyes with him outright and giving him another one of her signature warm grins. “I’m sure it’ll be great whatever you go with, babes.”

He gave her a hesitant smile, then looked to his lap before mumbling, “I was thinking…I was thinking about Sebastian.”

“Oh my Yoba, I love that name!” She immediately exclaimed.

Sebastian immediately drew up visibly, looking incredibly uncomfortable and like he would prefer to leave now. “Y-you don’t have to use fake enthusiasm around me, Abby.”

“It’s not fake!” She immediately protested, dropping her controller, and grabbing his shoulders so he was forced to look at her. “Hey…Hey. I’m not bullshitting you, man. I genuinely that Sebastian would be a perfect name for you. It’s, like…Mysterious and unique, just like you. And besides, it would be hella cool if we could have matching nicknames like that.”

He frowned, his brows furrowing. “What?”

“Abby and Sebby!” Abigail winked before releasing his shoulders.

For the duration of the pause that followed her words, she worried that she had somehow offended him after all. Then, he began to chuckle softly, lips pursing obviously to contain the sound before she poked his belly playfully and he could no longer contain the sound. He tried to cover his month instantly, but she was frankly too delighted to see him emitting joy to allow him to smother like he was so accustomed to trying to do. She gently bat his hands out of the way and rolled over onto the beanbag he was sitting on, positioning herself between his legs and beginning to tickle up and down his sides. The results were immediate, both of them collapsing into wild, helpless giggles as they fell over each other and enjoyed the others’ touch and mutual delight.

Once their laughter died down, Sebastian gave her one of his rare, sweet, and genuine smiles, and she began to feel feelings of affection that were entirely new. “Hey, Abby…Thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	7. Lyrics [Shane/Sam]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane never planned to properly meet one particular coworker of his, but what could he say, his already-established loved ones were just as persistent as him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending felt rushed to me, and I apologize for that, but these two really are a cute ship that I would like to explore more in the future! I do love Sunshine Babies and Angsty Babies together, what can I say~
> 
> AND I AM FINALLY ALL CAUGHT UP ON MY PROMPTS AND AM BACK ON TRACK. VICTOORRRRYYYY SCREEEETTTTCCHHHH

**Day Seven: Singing and Confusion**

The first time Shane heard him sing, it was the night of the very first concert for the Pelicans.

Going certainly had not been his idea. Despite how he had been struggling through the seemingly endless pains of sobriety for just over six months, he still intended to spend that Friday evening as he did every one before, camped in his corner or in front of the Journey of the Prairie King machine at the Stardrop Saloon. That damned farmer, though, in all of her irritatingly endless persistence had been urging him all week to get his ass on the bus taking anyone willing to go, and then it got brought up around Jas, and Marnie was conveniently ‘just too tied up watching the animals’ to take her, and so there he had ended up. At least Jas was enjoying herself, darting to and from their homemade, faded blanket to talk to the other townsfolk, to play with Vincent, to get them their concession stand dinners. By the time the stage lights came up, all vibrantly colored and pulsing so rapidly he could already feel the headache they would cause, he felt exhausted on the kid’s behalf.

“They sound really good, Uncle Shane!” Jas cheered, hugging onto his arm and snuggling up to it in the way he only ever allowed her to do. “We’re in for an exceptional treat!”

“Exceptional, huh?” Shane murmured. “Damn, kid, you really are a helluva lot smarter than me. You make me proud.”

Jas beamed in response, and if he didn’t know any better, Shane could almost swear he saw a kind of sadness reflecting in her eyes, which were made shiny in the dancing lights. Before he could try and ask if she was alright, the blonde-haired kid on stage walked up the microphone and began to introduce the band. Somehow, he looked familiar, but Shane could not seem to place why, even as he wracked his brain and tuned out whatever he was saying about their ‘journey as a team’ or whatever.

He had just given up trying to come up with the answer when the music finally started, and all other thoughts were soon pulled cleanly from his constantly otherwise busy mind. At first, he’d concluded it was because his goddaughter insisted they sit fairly close to the set, and it was impossible to ignore the sounds pulsing from the several rows of speakers evidently provided by Zuzu City. As the concert went on and more and more people began dancing, he found himself realizing that it was simply that _good_. Maybe it wasn’t saying much- he was so used to the corporative bullshit that allegedly appealed to the masses or whatever- but he discovered his own shoe tapping during a couple of numbers, and even himself unconsciously rocking along to the beat with a rather delighted Jas.

When the concert ended, Shane was not surprised to find out their resident farmer had been massively influential to the band’s sound and the topic of their closing number. He decided that his close friend being at the heart of this operation was why he enjoyed it so much; surely it had to be so. He didn’t consider himself to be a connoisseur of anything- he wasn’t stupid enough to believe he was that intelligent- but he couldn’t help but imagine that this group probably had something going for them. The three members were all young, energetic, and attractive, and their sound had even gotten a grumpy old man like him to react more than placidly for the sake of his kid, so that had to go for something in his opinion.

“Hey.” He didn’t exactly remember consciously deciding to approach the stage once the trio were taking down their stuff, but there he was, eye-level with the blonde lead’s plump ass as he put his guitar back in his gaze. “You guys are damn good. You’ll get signed and make it big in no time.”

The kid turned around to look at him, his eyes bright and sparkling just like the curtain of stars that were undoubtedly hidden by the lights of the city, and Shane felt his damn mess of a heart skip a beat. “Hey, thanks, man…That means a lot. And, uh…Well, I didn’t actually think you’d make it tonight, but it means a lot that you did, so…Thank you, Shane.”

His name popped in his mind, so clear he was kicking himself doubly for forgetting it when the poor guy had undoubtedly _tried to invite him_ , and Shane forced a smile to try and distract from his desire to drink away the crippling failure this whole night was beginning to reek of. “No problem, Sam. Take care.”

Sam gave him another grin, all youthfulness innocence and lit-up hopes. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow. And hey, don’t forget that our CDs are for sale just over there!”

Shane knew he didn’t own a CD player by itself, but he _did_ own a system with the capacity for playing most disks, so he went ahead and bought two copies. As he rode home that night, he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of that kid- _Sam_ \- and he even hummed the words he didn’t know yet to one of the songs as he carried a sleeping Jas back to the ranch. Maybe he would go ahead and give it a listen or two tonight. Maybe he would ask about the kid about the exact lyrics tomorrow.

…

The first time Sam would hear him sing, it was one night after one of The Pelicans’ sold-out shows, and Shane was showering in the bathroom of their home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥ What ships would you all like to see next?


	8. Recovery [Leah/Elliot]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recovery from any major alteration in life, no matter how overwhelmingly positive it may be, takes more than just physical rebounding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my loves! ♥ I am more than thrilled to bring you this update on time, even if was difficult considering that I am about to go on a family vacation, so I hope you all enjoy it! Also, you may notice that I only have one prompt listed, and that is because on the first list today's was 'Heterosexual Pride' and I did not feel comfortable including that explicitly when LGTBQIA+ does not include our (still very loved) straight allies.

**Day Eight: Date Night**

“I do hope you will forgive me for being so constantly in need-”

“Elliot Luca Quincy, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for, and I am privileged to be able to be by your side now and forever!” Leah spoke all of this while looking in her husband’s eyes, hands clasping his, and their faces mere inches apart.

“You are too kind, Leah Renee Quincy,” Elliot murmured bashfully before tenderly meeting his lips against hers. “I love you more than written words and any spoken language can possibly convey. I shall spend the rest of my life attempting to translate the passion and sincerity I feel unconditionally for you.”

“And I will be doing the same,” Leah said affectionately. “Will you please let your head tilt all the way back now?”

“But of course.”

Top surgery was a major commitment and change for both of them despite how it had been significantly long-awaited and anticipated. Despite her independence and general urge to provide for herself post her unhealthy relationship with They-Knew-Who, Elliot was very accustomed to being a doting husband, so this dynamic being absent for several weeks was something that had already caused him several bouts of distress. She knew she would be lying to herself if she said she did miss it as well, but not admitting it until his recovery was complete was just as much of a priority to Leah as everything else. With this mentality having been cemented long before the big day, she had been doing copious amounts of research in preparation for the day of the operation, and now that her husband was on the road to recovery, she had been doing her absolute best to care for him on every level; physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

At present, she was washing out his luxurious, lengthy hair in their kitchen sink so that he did not have to strain over their bathtub-shower combination, and internally she praised herself for having seemingly mastered his intricate hair routine at last.

“Thank you, my beautiful sunbeam,” Elliot murmured lethargically as she drained the water and gave his locks another comb-through before wrapping them up in his head towel. “Feeling clean has improved my overall outlook on the world, as it seems.”

“I was hoping it would,” Leah hummed in agreement. “Are you ready to go lay back down?”

“If that would be alright with you, I…I confess I would.”

“My Eli, I want whatever it is that you want. I am taking care of you,” she reminded gently. “Here, let me help you up…There you are. My handsome, brave man.”

Once her husband was resettled in their bed and had consequentially fallen asleep nearly immediately thereafter, Leah crept out to collapse on their couch and let out a long, soft sigh. It was hardly as though she had tired of caring for him; quite the contrary. But after the initial post-op grogginess and fatigue had warn off, it was obvious that his guilt about her becoming his primary caretaker while he got back his strength and full range of movements/abilities was wearing on him. It was also clear that he was becoming generally dejected about his perceived lack of self-efficiency, and she longed to be able to comfort him long-term as well as convince him that she was happy to provide for him in whatever areas he needed for however long he needed it. As long as she was at his side, she would go to very end of the worlds for him just as he would for her, and yet her words had not seemed to truly have gotten through to him.

She interrupted by her wracking her brain for ideas by a twinge of hunger. It was going to be dinnertime by the time Elliot woke up, so she needed to come up with something for them to both enjoy that would upset his stomach but also wasn’t as light as what he had been living on for the first week post-procedure. She was able to decide on making sandwiches when an idea, bright and connecting the lines of the thought swirling in her conscious, popped in and sent her heading to set everything up with renewed energy. Elliot was going to finally be able to enjoy efficiency, and she was going to display her love to him with showing rather than telling. She just hoped that this concept would work as much as they both needed it to.

…

“Hey, sleepyhead…Are you ready for dinner?”

Elliot stifled a yawn, wincing as he slowly propped himself up the best he could before Leah gingerly assisted by adjusting the pillows around and behind him. “Ah…Much better. Yes, I would love dinner, my fresh dewdrop.”

“Great!” It was now he noticed that his wife had a massive tray in her lap, one that had several items piled on top of it, and how she was beaming ear-to-ear as she looked over him. “Do you think you could help me make it?”

Making dinner himself? He had been longing to assist his surely overextended partner for rest of their days since they met, but the fact this procedure had been so intensive had utterly rendered him incapacitated quite put a damper on his philosophy. Truly, Leah overworked herself and refused to ask for help, and coupled with his general want to handle things usually led to their perfectly balancing each other out, so he supposed she _would_ have noticed his growing distress when their routine had been so dramatically altered for far longer than he ever hoped it to be.

“I…I would be honored to!” He said quickly, slurring over his words in his haste, and she responded with another patient smile and lowered the tray onto his legs. “What shall we be having tonight, my love?”

“Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, paired with fresh fruit and fresh coffee cake,” Leah announced with such pride that he had to grin.

“A feast of kings!” He concurred while affectionately cupping and thumbing her face. “How shall I assist thee, my greatest love?”

Elliot was most contented to spread out the peanut butter and jelly on the bread slices as well as cut them into squares. They worked together to cut up the fruit, her hands over his still slightly unsteady ones, interlacing the interactions with kisses and giggles that made his ribs hurt (though he did not truly mind at this point.) She brought in the coffee cake from the refrigerator, but she even allowed him to hold the glasses while she poured their beverages, and the two of them settled in to cuddle and enjoy their food with the radio pleasantly humming one of their favorite podcasts.

“You know, you and I are like peanut butter and jelly,” Leah murmured just as he was beginning to nod off again, his stomach and heart equally full. “We compliment each other perfectly.”

Was she trying to be poetic and romantic? It was incredibly endearing, and he though he could not have imagined his heart brimming with any more pride and joy, somehow she made it all the more possible, just as she had so much else in his life. “I simply could not agree more, my Leah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥ What ships would you all like to see next?


	9. Shells [Emily/Sandy]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two individuals from the same make of material compliment each other in their similarities and differences alike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this one-shot in its’ original form very late last night so I could revise and post it today from my phone. Why? Because I’m heading to the beach myself for a vacation for a week and I thought ahead and everything!

**Day Nine: Holding Hands and "I Can't Imagine My Life Without You"**

"Oh! Be careful that you don't trip!" Emily exclaimed with a worried glance back to her girlfriend, who was definitely carrying entirely too much for her capacities, as she heard the other woman grunt and pause to readjust her load. 

"I'm not going to trip, Wiley," Sandy retorted with no venom. "Just because I didn't grow up by the sea doesn't mean that I can't walk on the sand. I live in a desert, for Yoba's graces!”

“If you insist, my darling. I trust you," Emily replied with a gentle smile. "But I would be happy to lighten your load if you would allow me to." 

Naturally, Sandy refuted this request for what must have been the hundredth time, but it was only another minute or so before Emily finally got to fulfill her wish. The reason, unfortunately, was that her lady had failed to see the massive, half-buried swirled shell in her path thanks to the pile of stacked goods in front of her face, and consequently taken a ineloquent spill along with their things. Despite her instinct to giggle at having tried to warn her, Emily did not in favor of asking if she was okay and helping her pouting partner back to her feet before rescuing their picnic basket and one of their blankets before Sandy had the opportunity to regather them all in her own arms. 

“You are more stubborn than granules caught in a pair of shoes, has anyone ever told you that?" Sandy noted playfully as she adjusted their shared backpack on her back and the other blankets and their folded-up beach quilt under one arm.

"Perchance a certain someone has, at minimal, a time or two," Emily retorted in a similarly affectionate tone. 

She began to walk back toward their destination on the shoreline, only to be halted by Sandy's lack of doing the same. Emily turned to her partner was another concerned gaze, but this time, she was met with a mischievous look from her lady. “Hmm?" 

"One of my hands is completely empty and it feels abandoned now, Wiley. Would you let me hold one of yours?" Sandy drawled, her eyes lidded despite the relative innocence of the gesture in itself, and Emily found herself unable to prevent the blush and smile now gracing her face.

"But of course, Roady," she said in a mock-posh tone, extending her dominant hand and silently relishing how her darling's fingers immediately laced between hers.

The two women soon reached their usual spot near where the ocean waves greeted the sand, their hands slipping away from each other's long enough to lay out their setup and to remove their swimsuit covers before they instinctually grabbed back on to the other in order to run toward the waves, laughing and cheering as the cold water first touched their feet. Emily internally found herself appreciating how they worked off each other so naturally, how their companionship and dynamics were so comfortably familiar since childhood while being flexible and sturdy enough to evolve with their having matured and then fallen in love. She was free-spirited and full of spirituality while Sandy, her dearest intended, preferred her artistic expressions to be slightly more subtle aside from her impeccable sense of fashion. People had always said they were destined to be best friends for life from the moment they met as the two new second-graders at their school. Emily personally believed their fates had always been intertwined more intricately, far before she had words for it, and now as she watched her fiancé laugh and peel seaweed off of their legs as they began to search for shells rather than play along with the waves, she felt it was time to reaffirm it aloud. 

"I can't imagine my life without you, Sandy," she said softly, her voice full of such heartfelt sincerity that she worried she could not be heard over the sounds of the ocean and all of its' creatures filling this natural haven. 

Nevertheless, her Sandy heard her. She always understood how to listen and hear her. "And I cannot imagine my life without you, nor do I ever intend to." 

And then she was handed a rainbow shell, one with the end curved inwards sharply and with a hole grooved into the base that would be ideal for lacing it into a necklace, and Emily affirmed them both imperfectly, immeasurably beautiful. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ❤️ What ships would you like to see next?


	10. Express [Sam/Maru]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His partner should never underestimate the need to balance between work and play, in one of Sam's purest life philosophy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I absolutely LOVE how this one came out, and though I did this ship when I was feeling a little block-ish in the writing field and on a whim, I ship them hardcore now. Oh, what this project of love is doing to me! ♥

**Day Ten: Genderqueer and Treating Themselves**

There were only three entities that could pry Maru away from working on their greatest invention ever. The first was the promise of fresh nutrients or coffee, but only if either were delivered directly to their door. The second was if their immediate family or closest friends were in immediate danger that they were specifically connected to, which was extremely unlikely given how their mother was sitting behind her desk, their father was out in the field studying plants, and the most dangerous thing Sebastian did was smoke pot (which he would not be doing at work or in the home, which is where he was.) The third was if their partner came barging in and literally dragged them out of their seclusion. Said third item was not originally part of the list, but that was what happened, so they supposed that they had to add it now.

“What is it that you have planned, exactly?” They asked for what felt like the hundredth time since they had been so unceremoniously ripped from their project.

For what was _certainly_ the hundredth instance, Sam simply gave them a crooked grin, the mischievous twinkle in his eyes doing absolutely nothing to reaffirm their faith that he wasn’t trying to prank them or coherence them into something they would not be able to get out of. “Babe, relax. I promise it’s all good, just have some patience.”

As long-suffering as they had been with this invention of theirs, they were not that way by nature. By the time the two of them had pulled into the parking lot of one of the Zuzu City mall strips, they were fully jittery, bouncing their leg at a rapid rate while rubbing their hands over and over the front of the overalls until they’d begun to chafe. Once he’d put his car in park and turned to face them with a grin, Sam finally seemed to take notice of their distress and folded his hands over theirs, kissing the tops and undersides of each finger until they couldn’t help but dissolve into silly giggles.

“I promise that everything will be alright,” Sam, their Sam, soothed with sincerity replacing all mischief in his bright blue eyes. “I am doing this with both of us in mind.”

“Please…Just tell me what this is,” Maru said slowly, their eyes cast toward the floor as they nevertheless squeezing his hands in return.

Sam gingerly guided their chin back up and gave them his significate ‘sunshine smile’, the one that she imagined could penetrate even the most stoic heart if they glanced his way even momentarily. “Today is a Treat-Yourself Day, Mx. Maru Falmer. It’s all about giving yourself the luxuries and pampering you would normally rationalize away or talk yourself out of.”

“Treat myself?” Maru couldn’t help but laugh a little; he had undoubtedly gotten the idea from one of the shows he watched regularly. “Sam, I have everything that I need save for a couple of odds and ends for my project. Besides, it’s not as though I’ve done anything very worthy of rewarding myself.”

“ _Baaaabbbeee_!” Sam instantly whined. “That isn’t the point of treating yourself! The whole point is that you do it because you’re _always_ worth doing it but you don’t let usually yourself! Your amount that you work doesn’t make your worth!”

A retort that those were words that could only come from somebody who did not have to work to survive rose onto the tip of their tongue, but they bit it back the second they imagined how that could be misconstrued and hurt his feelings. They didn’t have any further time to dwell on a response, anyway, as Sam had gotten out of the car and was now pulling them toward a sweets shop that looked straight out of the 1950s. They tried to assert they could walk themselves, that they would not do something like duck back into the car or otherwise resist the pampering, but their boyfriend’s hold remained steadfast until they were past the threshold and he _knew_ that they would not be able to resist all of the delicious, vintage goods.

“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” They grumbled in feigned annoyance as the two of them walked out over half an hour later with at least two pounds of goods. “You did that on purpose, too!”

“I most certainly did,” Sam confessed without an ounce of regret. “But you would have said I wasted gas otherwise, and I definitely can’t have you thinking _that_. Now come on, we’ve got to go get our nails done!”

“Absolutely not!” Maru exclaimed sharply. “I _will not_ have gaudy nails getting in the way of my work!”

“Okay, okay!” Sam said in a rush, his face coloring in a deep red of shame. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…I’m sorry. Forget it if you hate it that much.”

They had most certainly overreacted, then. They apologetically reached for his hand, feeling an instant comfort when it wasn’t immediately drawn away. “No, I am the one who should be sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, I just…I didn’t want you to insist when I said no, y’know? And I want you to get yours done if you want to! I would be happy to watch.”

The usual light at returning to his features, but still he hesitated. “…Are you sure? I don’t want to make you go anywhere that might make you uncomfortable.”

“I’m positive!” They ascended, kissing each of his cheeks promptly. “We’re both treating ourselves, yeah?”

That did the trick; Sam immediately beamed at them and went back to hauling them after him toward the nail salon with renewed energy. “Hell yeah we are!!”

The ladies at the salon were unfortunately insistent that they partake at first, but once Maru seemed to impress them with their conversational abilities in Korean, they eventually backed off. It was admittedly quite funny to see their sweet Sam giggle frantically at the ticklish parts of his pedicure, and they even allowed him to buy them a set of stick-on nails that were modeled surprisingly accurately after different types of gems. Once the two of them left the salon, they got lunch at an Italian restaurant that left them both feeling as though they may explode, so there was little resistance from them when Sam suggested that they take a scenic museum tour concerning the history of different native aspects of nature. The whole tour may have been designed with children in mind (and Maru may know far more about the creatures than the tour guide seemed to), but both of them enjoyed themselves on it, and the pressure that relieved on their guts by the time they went back out into the main plaza.

“How about some clothes shopping?” Sam suggested while waving the arm that was not laced around their own toward the street full of different fashion stores. “I want to see you in any cute outfit that you like, be it gender-neutral, male, androgynous, female, all of the above, or neither! _Pleeeeaaassseee_ indulge us both??”

“Oh, all-right~” Maru surrendered with an overdramatic sigh to not betray the amount of fun they were actually having with this day.

Sam was nothing if not incredibly supportive, swooning over pretty much every combination they put on their body and being extremely delicate on the few choices that clashed. Of course, Maru knew they could trust their far more ‘hip’ partner with the ways of clothes, and they did aside from the combination of pieces that made up the colors of their gender identity flag too perfectly for them to not buy them to be worn in unison. By the end of it, they were shocked to find they’d purchased three new shoes, two extremely feminine dresses, four skirts, three pairs of jeans, a new overall set, five tank-tops, and two pairs of knee-high socks that they weren’t even sure what they’d wear with them.

“I spent so much money!” They lamented with no real venom. “Dad is going to think I went on a bender or something!”

“It’s _your_ money, and besides, we’re treating ourselves!” Sam exclaimed easily, as though as he’d just been waiting for them to mention their well-intentioned but occasionally (extremely) overbearing parent. “Here, I’ll get those odds and ends for your project to make up for it before we find some grub. How’s that?”

How could they refuse such a sweet offer, even when they knew they could never request the most expensive and rare piece? The pair dined at a local burger scene that was pleasantly filling once they’d hit a few more non-commercialized shops, and by the time they were pulling back into Stardew Valley, Maru felt far too full, sleepy, and overall fulfilled to possibly attempt leaving the side of the man that made it all so possible.

“It hardly seems far I can’t just marry you here and now,” they mumbled affectionately as Sam carried them into his family home and into his bedroom. “Build our own house, have some kids, teach them about work and play as two equally important entities…”

Sam blushed with a massive grin, his happiness ever infectious despite their already being so content. “I can’t barely wait myself, my love, but I can’t mess up my master plan for that despite our treating ourselves.”

They hummed in feigned disappointment before rolling to cuddle him more fully, which he reciprocated immediately. “Hey, Sammy? …Thank you.”

“And thank you,” he said in a coo that made them blush and hide their face in both delight and being flustered. “And Maru?”

“Hm?”

“Being with you is the biggest treat of my life, and it’s one I get every day. I…I love you.”

Their first ‘I love you’! It was the perfect ending to a nearly perfect date, and even if they were ready to simply elope with this man that they knew they’d spend the rest of their life with, this only made them wonder with delighted wonder what the rest of plan would become. For now, they snuggled closer to him, kissing into his previously beaming smile and wrapping their arms around him for the night’s rest.

“And I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	11. Quad [Haley/Alex/Farmers]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is absolutely no reason that someone cannot have more than one true love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Though I am not poly myself, I have a long-standing love and deep respect for OT3s and all of my polyamarous brothers, sisters, and non-binary siblings. I am honored to have been able to write these beautiful babes in such a wonderful quad relationship, and I hope you all will adore everyone involved as I do! ♥

**Day Eleven: Sharing and Question**

“Yoba’s panties, who knew that moving in would be so _hard_?” Haley groaned as set down her fifth box of beauty supplies beside her recently purchased and newly hauled-in deluxe vanity. “The boxes just keep coming and coming!”

“As easy as it would be for me to make a dirty joke right now, I think I might be too tired,” Quiara said in a half-groan as she sat on the edge of the king-sized bed that she’d just finished pushing into place.

“You, too tired to be suggestive? Are you feeling alright??” Haley teased affectionately, walking over to her girlfriend and settling behind her to begin rubbing her shoulders. “It’s okay if you want to take a break.”

“You know, now that you you’ve said that the baby is going to cry,” Quiara groaned softly. “Mmph…Thanks, babe, that feels a lot better already.”

“INCOMING!” Hannah called out from somewhere near the front of the house.

Moments later, Alex came rushing forward, bellowing a battle cry and stomach-diving straight onto the bed. Haley, being positioned with her feet off to the side of the bed, had time to get to her feet before the impending partner-crashing-into-the-bed, but Quiara was not so fortunate and ended up being bounced straight to the floor by the force of the bed moving beneath Alex’s motion.

“ _Hey!!”_ She complained loudly at once, rubbing at her slightly carpet-burnt knees and looking at her similarly scuffed hands from where she caught herself from an almost full face-plant. “Alexander!!”

“Oh shit!” Alex rolled ono his back and boosted himself up onto the edge of the bed, reaching down and helping Quiara up to settle beside him. “Sorry, babe, but Hannah _did_ say ‘incoming’…”

“How was she supposed to know what that meant?” Haley huffed in response as Quiara gave him a pouting glare, to which she received a sheepish but childlike grin from her boyfriend. “Hmph. Big bully.”

“Big bully?? I’ve been labelled in a bad light! How will my ego ever recooovveeerrrr?” Alex lamented very dramatically, even going so far as to lay over in Quiara’s lap and drape his hand across his forehead as though he were faint. “I’m sorrrryyyyyy, Ari~ Can you ever forgiiivvveee meeeee?”

“Okay, okay, you’re right; you’re a big dork!” Quiara relented while an uncontrollable grin broke her mock-angry face. “Now go apologize to our pregnant girlfriend who you made dive out of the way of your big butt!”

“Alright, alright!” Alex complained playfully as he got back to his feet and wrapped his arms around Haley, who was equally failing at pretending to be upset with him with her lightly crossed arms and fierce but wavering pout. “Honey? Will you forgiiiivvveee me, baaaaabbbbyyy?”

“Oh, alright, you big dufus,” Haley conceded with false reluctance, throwing her arms around his neck right after and laughing when Quiara, sneaking up behind him, ruffled both of her hands through his gel-hardened hair as he fussed around and laughed.

“It’s not nice to go after a lion’s mane!” He whined as he tried to readjust his locks, all of which were now sticking in every possible direction and some of which had seemed to have been removed from their product-encasing all together with how they sprung into short waves. “You’re making me waste my precious gel here!”

“Then don’t make me scramble so I’m not trampled!” Quiara asserted with affection at the forefront of her tone before she began helping him restyle his ‘mane.’ “How much more do we have to load in?”

“Most of the office, half of the guest room, and all of the living room furniture.” Hannah stood at the entrance of their shared room, her long black hair beginning to try and fall free from the bun atop her head and no exhaustion showing on her sturdy, strengthened farmer’s body. “We better get crackin’ if we want to have it done before dinnertime.”

“Yoba’s graces, what have we _even_ been bringing in if we still have all of that?” Haley exclaimed from where she was beginning to set out the beauty products she would need later tonight.

“The baby’s room, the upstairs bedrooms, the hallways’ art, the kitchen, all of the stuff from the yard~” Hannah drawled, walking over to the daintier lady and kissing her on the head. “This room.”

“Why do we all have you so much _stuff_?” Haley half-whined, leaning into her partner’s comforting before pausing with a new shade of red tinting her face. “Okay, actually, I’m totally not one to talk about that.”

“At least you’re aware of that,” Hannah hummed as she stroked the smaller lady’s blonde curls down and away from her face. “Are you feeling alright? Do you need anything before we go back out?”

“No, I’m alright, angel. I’ll get started on dinner really soon and start putting away the kitchen!” Haley chirped with a new optimism about the domestic lives ahead of the four of them.

“Are you sure you don’t want one of us to stay here and help you out? I don’t want you straining yourself, and if it takes a little longer to haul everything in, that’s really fine-” Hannah said with her brows furrowing.

“Anna-Banana, I promise I feel more than able to do this,” Haley injected with a smile. “I think cleaning up is fun now! And besides, I’m the one who does, like, all the cooking, so it only makes sense if I’m the one to put the kitchen in order, right?”

“I suppose that’s true,” Hannah conceded with a bit of lingering reluctance, kissing her fiancé regardless before trotting back outside with Alex and Quiara joking and playfully messing with each other as well as trying to do the same with her.

Haley beamed to herself even as her partners went back to work doing the heavy lifting, finishing up setting what she needed for her night routine before waddling toward the kitchen. As she began prepping the food she had promised she would make the day of their big move-in, she reflected that a mere three years ago, she could have never expected that this would be where she was the happiest she’d been in about fifteen years. Sure, she had been crushing on Alex since the two of them were in the eighth grade, but the boy had been so oblivious despite her best attempts that she was prepared to bury those feelings so deep that his seeming lack of romantic interest could never hurt her again when everything changed the second spring after they both graduated high school. That was the year that Hannah moved to Stardew Valley, a burnout former Joja Co. employee who was rearing to tear away all of her trauma and baggage in order to find her roots.

Haley would unfortunately have been lying to herself if she said she had much interest the new farmer at all in the beginning. For one, the girl was not pretty in the incredibly narcissistic, corporatized ‘way’ that she had been investing in since she was ten years old. Hannah was also a rather reserved person despite her seeming insistence on speaking to everyone pretty much every time they were in town or came across them, so it took just over one full year before the two of them really began connecting in a meaningful way. Third, that farmer had a knack for finding gifts, sometimes extremely rare ones, and the fact that they chose to give them to pretty much everyone in town had Haley convinced that she was nothing more than a horny player, nothing more, so it took a long time for her to realize just how wrong she’d been. Fourthly and lastly, the former popular queen of the school _certainly_ did not miss how Hannah and Alex got along to the point that she felt as though she was losing her best friend when he’d ditch her to hang with the farmer. That jealously had consumed her to the point of confrontation, and that was when they really began to understood more about each other, even more so than even their closest friends even knew.

Then Quiara moved into Hannah’s newly extended farmhouse to finally escape a lifetime of abuse from her immediate family, and Haley was struggling in the same place of jealously and want for _her_ Hannah, all stemming from the intense mistrust she had in other woman living with her girlfriend that had been best friends with said girlfriend for nearly all of their lives.

“Oh, baby, I’m coming! Mommy’s coming!” Haley exclaimed in response to the shrill cries now coming from the nursery. “Shhh, shhh, shhh~ It’s okay, baby girl, it’s okay now, shhh…Mommy’s here now. It’s alright now, shhh. Mommy’s here.”

The infant now secured in her mother’s arms cooed now, her tiny hands immediately reaching for Haley’s lengthy blonde locks and bright brown eyes shining with curiosity as she observed her world again from this new view.

“What a smart girl you are!” Haley cooed to baby Clara, walking with her back to the kitchen and beginning to prepare a bottle of pre-pumped breast milk from Quiara. “Such a little adventurer, aren’t you? You’re going to be big and strong like your Mama, Papa, and Marmie! Mhm, yes, you are! Yes you are!”

Yoba knew that Haley wouldn’t have thought she could ever share her heart romantically, even sexually, with more than one person, especially not consensually. After all, she was no stranger with having been cheated on, and even having emotionally cheated on one or two relationships that she had felt trapped within when she did so. Polyamory was certainly not a topic she knew anything about, and so when Hannah brought it up around five months into their relationship, she was shocked, plenty confused, and desperate to learn so that she would not have to lose yet another person she loved to miscommunication. In the three months following the initial idea, Haley learned an extensive amount about consensual non-monogamy and what the preferences of Hannah were, and then what she herself learned she preferred. Around that time, Alex and Quiara had begun their own relationship and were seemingly a match made in paradise, so the two couples began to frequently double-date and spend hundreds of hours together as each got to know each other and their relationships as a whole. It had been after failed attempts to incorporate two ultimately incompatible people into Haley and Hannah’s relationship that Haley herself had suggested they see if their platonic adoration for Alex and Quiara could possibly become more. There were certainly learning curves, occasional fights and miscommunications, but the four of them learned before the end of that year that none of them could imagine a life for themselves where none of them were primary partners to each other. and now…

“Damn wasp!!” Quiara asserted as she suddenly burst back into the house, one wrist cradled in the other. “Honey??”

“I’ll get the first aide kit!” Haley called in return, snatching the box in question from where it had been placed on the table for instances like this and briskly walking to help her girlfriend out with her sting.

“Oh? And little Miss Clara is helping, too??” Quiara cooed immediately once she laid eyes on their daughter, her good arm crooking to support the infant as her injured one was fussed over by Haley. “Hello, my sweet girl~”

Five years since Hannah had first moved to the Valley, and here the four of them were in a prosperous, mutually beneficial, healthy, and closed polyamorous quad. Alex had proposed to Quiara on their recent two-year anniversary of having gotten together, and Hannah had done the same for Haley a few months earlier. Haley strongly suspected that Alex would propose to she and Hannah on their anniversary of having all become a poly family, or possibly that Quiara would do it, or both of them would have something special planned. Yoba knew that she had been tempted to do it for her boyfriend and girlfriend on more than one occasion, especially after their first child as a family, birthed by Quiara and naturally also from Alex, had been born and named for his beloved late mother.

“Are you alright, Ari?” Alex called as he came in as the wrapping was finished over Quiara’s sting. “I got the nest taken care of and blasted as many as I could find for you!”

“Thank you, baby boy,” Quiara said sweetly. “Do you think you could change Clara for me?”

“Hey, it’s our last piece for the guest room!” Hannah announced as she walked in with a bedside table balanced over each of her shoulders. “Now we’re ‘real’ adults who can host guests once this stuff is all organized and shit!”

This immediately resulted in the cheering from the other three, and Haley could not help but be content with whatever the future would hold for her, her partners, for Clara, for the baby in her own belly, and for all of their future children. Regardless of when ‘the question’ was asked, the answer was long-established to be yes, and they would face whatever the future faced together, all of the ranging between phenomenal and potentially devastating. As Haley kissed each of her true loves in new greetings and silent encouragement that this current project would soon be complete and rewarded with a grand meal, she could not help but wonder if they were already in paradise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	12. Soul [Emily/Abby]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily knows better than most that if the needs of a soul do not match outer appearances, any true contentment cannot be possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, confession: I am /really/ struggling with Emily's character, far more so than I have with anyone else's. I sincerely apologize if she is out of character in this or in Chapter Nine. I love her despite my difficulty getting 'in her head', and hopefully as time goes on, she will become second-nature to me. 
> 
> Also, out of all of the characters in the Valley that I head-canon as gender non-conforming, Maru and Emily immediately take the first spots with Elliot in third. It is why I have included entries with them in non-binary gender identities despite referring to them by their canon-provided pronouns, but please know that when it comes to this story and with the game overall, I find everyone to be incredibly fluid and complex in their identities, just as much as anyone in real life. They're all valid, and so are you all, my beautiful readers. ♥

**Day Twelve: Gender Flag of Your Choice and Chilling on the Couch**

“I totally don’t get you sometimes, you know that?” Their little sister commented as she stood before them, car keys in one of her perfectly manicured hands and the strap of her dainty over-the-shoulder purse in the other. “Why would you want to chop all of your hair off? I’d kill to have it as thick and long as yours!!”

“You only say that because you don’t have to deal with it every day,” Emily refuted with a shrug. “Besides, it has taken up far too much of my time for too long. It’s presence in my life is having a negative impact in areas that I would rather invest in, so I am going to retire it and donate it to those who can truly get use from it.”

“O-kay, whatever you say~” Haley drawled, her attention clearly elsewhere even as she continued staring at them. “So, it’s cool if I go out now?”

“Go spend time with your girlfriend, my lovesick little pup,” Emily said affectionately. “And don’t forget to come in before-”

“Curfew; yeah, yeah!” Haley huffed, pink coloring her cheeks at the affectionate teasing and arms crossing over her chest at once. “And I’m not a pup! Everyone totally knows that is just another way to call someone a bitch!”

“I would never say something I did not mean clearly, and I most certainly do not want you thinking that I would ever call you something like that.” Despite their calm tone, Emily could feel their heart beating faster under the cutting accusation, and they got up to extend their arms toward their flighty younger sister. “Come here, come here. I love you too much to be so crass.”

“I knowwww~” Haley groaned, squirming ever-so lightly under their embrace before giving up the façade and cuddling into their older sibling. “You sappy nerd…I’ll be home on time, okay? And I love you too.”

“Phenomenal. Be safe,” the older of the two replied affectionately, planting a kiss on Haley’s forehead before their little sister wiggled away and gave them a final wave and blown kiss before she was off to be with her partner and friends. “Oh, to be young and in love.”

Now that they were alone, they went ahead and spread out the supplies they would need to do this properly. Several beach towels were spread across the living room floor with the couch and coffee table pushed safely out of the way. Since their bathroom was dominated by their sister’s products, they thought it was easier to settle in the more spacious living room to remove their long-suffering locks. All of the stray hair after the initial chop could be washed out of the towels and vacuumed up if it were to fall out, and nothing else had to be disturbed. Additionally, this way gave much more room from their friend-

A few distinct knocks on the door interrupted their train of thought and had a grin spread across their face immediately as they ran to open it. Abby grinned at them as soon as the door was swung open, her light brown hair swept up into a high, messy bun and eyes bright with clear excitement as she hefted up the massive tote bag she had over one shoulder.

“Supplies dealer, reporting for duty!” She announced. “Where to, Oh Captain, my Captain?”

“I’ve got everything set up just in! Can I get you anything before I shower?” Emily said in greeting, taking the other’s hand instinctually as they walked back into the home that still felt entirely too big to the androgyne young adult. “Water, soda, juice?”

“I’d say alcohol, but I love both of our hair too much to even try mixing them,” Abby said teasingly. “Some juice would be great; thanks, Em.”

Once her guest was settled in, Emily wasted no time hopping in the shower and beginning to tenderly wash and scrub away at their skin and scalp, all of which were oily and sweaty from manual labor and their previous painting project. As they worked away, their thoughts drifted where they always seemed to these days; Abigail. The energy that flowed from her was something unlike Emily had ever seen from anyone else in town. The girl was what the older generations would a call a ‘firecracker’, someone so brash and so unlike her parents that it was occasionally hard to believe they were related. She was radiant, positive, and shameless, all qualities that did not fade even as her insecurities crept out upon getting to truly know her, but she was also sensitive, thoughtful, and incredibly observant. The twenty-year-old was connected to Mother Nature and the mysterious beauties of all of the land unlike anybody else in the Valley, even more so than the newcomer, Leah, seemed to be, while still being connected with modern trends and technologies with seamless assuredness.

The younger woman positively fascinated Emily, and finding the gumption to truly speak with her and solidify them as great friends had taken her until the other had finished her high schooling and returned from her failed attempt at living away from home. Abby was incredibly cryptic about that period of her life, and unlike everyone else in town, Emily knew far better than to press the matter. Instead, they were simply a friend, and over the past year they had grown to be some of the closest people in town. Rumors abounded from the well-meaning and meddling housewives, but despite their general confidence and own self-assuredness, Emily somehow found themselves speechless on the topic of becoming more than they already were. It was not as though it were even remotely unlikely; both of them were bisexual or pansexual, and it had been months and months since either of their last relationships. They were physically affectionate, quite so, and often pulled the routine of being taken lesbians if they were to go out of Pelican Town together and some creeper tried to be ‘smooth’. So what could possibly be the issue? Emily had no idea, but it was beginning to truly grind at their soul to find out in any way they knew how, be it crystals, fortunes, or a simple bout of extreme courage.

“There you are! I was beginning to think you floated away in there,” Abby teased affectionately as they finally emerged from their thoughtful shower session, their hair still largely wet and plastering all the way down their back. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Emily confirmed with a grin, one of the genuine ones she saved for her most treasured companions. “Let’s get snipping.”

It had been Abby’s idea to do this without clothing to get hairs trapped all across. The two had seen each other with little cover on multiple occasions- swimsuits and sleepovers abounded between them- and Emily thought nudity was far more natural than the specific clothing that society insisted was appropriate. They did not miss how Abby blushed regardless, and how the girl’s hands danced around their most personal parts as she worked away at the hair that had plaguing them. When she announced that she was finished, Emily was unsurprised to find how they themselves were blushing fiercely, and how they’d been grinning broadly long before their new hairstyle delighted them further.

“This is _fabulous_!” They squealed at once, throwing their arms around their companion and smushing their faces together with uncapped affection. “Thank you so very much, I am completely in love with it! The energy I get from this look is bright red, full of love and positive affirmations!”

“I’m so happy to hear that!” Abby laughed as she returned the embrace, even giving them an Eskimo kiss as they rocked against each other in contented joy. “I was so worried it was way still way too long…I want you to feel like your most authentic self, you know? No matter how long it takes.”

“I really do love it,” they affirmed with another squeeze to the woman. “Now, are you ready to find your new truest form?”

“Yoba’s panties, _yes_! I’ve had this crap natural way long enough to heal it, let’s fix this disaster!”

Emily was tempted to say that Abby could make _anything_ look magnificent, but they knew better than most that if the outside did not match what the soul needed to express, there was no true contentment. They pulled on their smock and the romper they’d chosen for the dye work they’d be doing with their own recipes, then set to work turning their dear friend’s light brunette locks into a beautiful, oceanlike blue. The process took nearly three hours to be fully complete, but it was full of laughter, banter, music and animated stories, so it hardly felt as though it had even been thirty minutes by the time they were complete.

“How do you like it, Miss Abigail?” Emily asked anxiously as Abby finally got a proper look in the mirror at the finished product. “Does this match your needs?”

Of course, their crystals already whispered that they did match with Abby’s aurora, but it did not delight them any less when she beamed fully and pulled them into a potentially bone-crushing hug and half-dance. They celebrated by making cauliflower pizzas and some light alcohol, and by the time night fell, they were both tipsy and happily watching different programs that sounded interest on the couch, both too happy to be bothered with moving it back to its’ original location.

“You mind if I stay the night? Dad was bitchy when I left, and I don’t care to hear it if he wants to whine about my hair again,” Abby murmured as she laid against Emily’s chest, their legs tangled and heartbeats almost perfectly synchronized.

“Of course you may,” Emily murmured in immediate response. “We’d love to have you, Haley and I.”

“You’re the best, Em!” Abby asserted, her words softened by alcohol and their mutual sleepy satisfaction, but her gratitude was immediately shown in the way her lips gingerly met their own, sweetly and for enough seconds to know it was hardly an impulsive decision. “..H-how was that for you?”

“Pretty phenomenal, I must say,” Emily reported as the anxiety they felt before transformed into a million joyful butterflies. “Shall we try it again before we choose between our next nature or supernatural documentaries?”

Abby beamed, her essence far more powerful than that of a firecracker, and Emily decided in that moment that Abby was far too complex and radiant to be compared to anything man-made. Their and hers’ fates were forever intertwined, the two of them reliant in the best ways, their dependencies on the other mutual and healthily nurturing where other attempts at love had failed. They decided then that Abby- _their_ Abby- was the sun, undeniable and diverse, just as they felt themselves to be a flower born into a world of chaos and corporation. With all of this so certain in their mind, they knew that they were beginning to truly blossom and thrive against each other’s properties, and that was certainly the most rewarding prospect of their new way of love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There Was An Attempt at An Ending. Please remember to kudos/leave a comment/bookmark/subscribe if it so compels you! ♥


	13. Begin Again [Haley/Penny]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You throw your head back laughing like a little kid~ I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cause he never did~ And I've been spending the last eight months, thinking love ever does is break, and burn, and end...But on a Wednesday, in a cafe, I watched it..." ~Taylor Swift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Thirteen is My Queen's (and I's!) lucky number and that is the chapter number. It /is/actually coincidental that this chapter initially reminded me of this song, but it's too perfect not to incorporate! 
> 
> 2\. The last few days have been extremely rough on me mentally and/or physically. That is why it hasn't been published until June 18, but like I said at the beginning, I am trying not to be too hard on myself for trying to care myself before holding myself to occasionally impossible standards.
> 
> 3\. I SHIP THESE TWO A LOT NOW AND I HAVE NO REGRETS ABOUT IT *-*

**Day Thirteen: Dancing and Fun in the Sun**

It was impossible not to feel his eyes directly on her as she practiced her moves for the Flower Dance. She had allowed it while she was stretching, quite possibly against her better judgement, in trying to convince herself that he simply could not help but to appreciate her fine physique. His gaze now felt as though it was piercing her from behind, the burning heat from the intensity held in each eye burning straight through her still-healing heart, and she was not going to stand for it a second longer. She did not deserve it in the least, and whether or not he would recognize it, she did.

“Why are you still so hung up on me, Alexander?” Haley demanded as evenly as she could manage, locking eyes with the man who had broken her heart as soon as she spun around from where she was practicing. “Go live your own life. If you want somebody to have for ‘enjoying the view’, go help your boyfriend practice.”

Alex looked stunned at her confrontation, his face reddening in his evident embarrassment at having been ‘caught’. “I-I…It’s not like that, Hal-”

“Look. I want you to be happy,” she interjected truthfully. “I don’t want you to neglect the one you love just because we have history. We’re fine, but I am trying to move on myself. Please let me before we try being really good friends again.”

Shame coating his expression, Alex gave her one last half-smile before ducking his head and joining his spouse at the food tables. As soon as he was out of earshot, Haley exhaled deeply and slowly, ghosts of shivers prancing across her skin as she hugged herself in a subtle way to both protect and soothe herself. When she’d told her ex-husband that she wanted to be able to be how they once were, she truly had been hoping that her soul would be ready for it by the time this spring was approaching its’ close, but now she was beginning to feel incredibly spent by attempting something ambitious overall. It wasn’t as though he had been bad to her _overall_ , per say, but he most certainly _was_ the person who had completely and inevitably shattered her heart in the process of shedding his old husk of lies to embrace his new one of truth and openness.

When she had been asked if she would have preferred if he were quietly miserable or painfully honest in his coming out, she was sincere when she said she preferred the former. That did not erase her pain- and as Emily put it multiple times, it shouldn’t- and yet she still had just enough of an edge cut from her broken union to want to not allow it to screw up this festival for her for the second year in a row. Their separation was just over a year old now, after all, but more and more she beginning to wish she had taken Emily’s advice about not pushing herself to come here.

“Hey!” The word coming from her lips surprised her, but when the girl she was targeting it to without any forethought looked up, she decided she had to roll with it. “Oh, hey…It’s…Penny, right?”

Penny, the auburn-haired young woman who tended to always have a book in hand or a child at her side, was looking at her with bright green eyes that she realized , now that she was truly studying them, absolutely matched the richness of the meadow this event took place in every year. “Yes, Haley?”

“Do you…want to dance with me today?”

She wasn’t exactly sure why she asked the undoubtedly most kind member of their small town to do the traditional routine. Penny was certainly one of the safest options out of all of the bachelors and bachelorettes, as she would undoubtedly not be a heartbreaker or unfaithful. As a matter of fact, she truly embodied a kind of innocent purity, and Haley immediately began to worry that she herself may be _too_ experienced for the likes of the slightly older girl.

Penny did a more obvious doubletake, her pupils dilating as she looked between Haley and her little nerd friends before she took a hesitant step forward. “ _Y-you_ want to…wi-with _me_?”

Haley could feel her own face flushing as she let out a short, annoyed breath though her mouth. “Yoba, you make it sound so kinky or something. It’s just a dance.”

The way that the other woman was looking at her now brought shame crashing into her acutely from where it otherwise been a ripple in her conscious. Why _did_ she have to be such a bitch to everyone all the time, anyway? Alex had pointed out during their most intense arguments- that she’d become incredibly stuck-up during high school and that it continued even after they graduated- and it even showed to people she loved that she showed her ass if anything displeased her. He’d apologized after the fights had worn them both down, but looking at Penny- sweet, nurturing, gentle Penny who had most certainly never said truly unkind word to anyone in her lifetime- Haley was reminded with sour regret that he’d had a point then and he certainly would now. Her divorce from him had definitely made her catty to a point of contention with just about everyone, some more often than others, and she couldn’t even seem to get a hold on it long enough to charm someone she genuinely thought highly of into a dance.

“I…I didn’t mean that!” Haley stuttered, feeling incredibly overheated all at once and as though she ought to save a little face by leaving early and not worrying about reclaiming her title after all. “Yoba, Penny, I’m…I’m really sorry. It’s not your fault I can be such a bitch, but…I would really like to dance with you if you want to…o-or whatever.”

Penny looked just as flustered now, and her girl friend- wasn’t her name Marley, or Maru? - grabbed her arm to whisper something in her ear, and Haley resigned herself to the fact that she had completely ruined yet another potential friendship. She ducked her head down as shame burned through her heart and rose like bile in her throat, quickly skirting to her sister’s side and grabbing her arm with trembling hands. Emily, thank Yoba, took her cue immediately and excused herself for her conversation with Clint, the two of them finding a non-populated space in the large, mostly open meadow. It felt as though everyone’s eyes were on her even as they did so, and that for the first time, she knew better than to assume their judgement was positive. Everyone knew already what she’d done to poor Penny, and if they didn’t now they would soon, and it didn’t matter if they didn’t because her reputation for being horrifically snooty preceded anything she ever did. They just were too damn polite to say it, that was all-

“Honey!” Emily’s voice cut through the fog of anxiety, the familiar nickname like a flickering candle in the cold darkness that had taken over her heart. “Honey, breathe…Honey…Honey, can you follow my voice? Can you try and do that for me?”

When the terror and grief had finally ebbed away under the guidance of Emily’s voice, Haley finally mustered the courage in herself and the faith in her ever-steady sister’s assurances that nobody seemed to be looking their way at all. However, the relief still felt more bittersweet than joyous, given how the disdain she felt toward herself was an all-time high despite her ability to not hyperventilate and to think more clearly. Haley wiped at the last of her hot tears and finally met her older sister’s soulful, love-filled eyes, and was sure that she looked like a complete mess herself, and that she probably- no, she _definitely_ \- didn’t deserve a sister as doting, wise, and patient as her. What had she ever done to get such unconditional love, anyway?

“Would you like to go home, Honey?” Emily asked softly now while brushing a few loose curls from her face.

“Y-yes, Jammy,” Haley murmured shakily as she quickly moved to brush down the rest of her hair.

“If you want to stay here or even come back later, please know that I will support your decision. Your soul wants what your soul wants,” her sister said comfortingly, wrapping an arm around her and beginning to walk with her toward the small bridge that led out of the festival.

“W-wait.” Haley reluctantly slipped away from her hold, grimacing when she saw a hint of hurt crossing her sibling’s face. “I don’t…I don’t want you to have to leave, too. Please…I want you to have fun here with y-your friends. I’ll be okay on my own. I promise.”

It was clear from the torrid of emotions that passed over her big sister’s face that Emily wanted to gently protest, to say something profound about how parts of nature work together or how animals look out for those who are hurting among them (or something like that), but then she let out a sigh and gave her another one of those ever patient smiles. “I will be with you in this decision as well, Honey. I love you.”

“I love you too, Jammy,” Haley replied without her usual hesitation, embracing her sister at once as her voice wavered under her still tender emotions. “I’ll see you later.”

Before she could exit the festival, however, something completely unprecedented happened. Penny was calling her name, rushing up to her with her beautiful skirt clutched in both hands, and was soon on her with her ever-wide green eyes and cheeks flush from the exertion. Haley was hardly sure how to respond- should she apologize, should she see if the other young woman was okay? - and so she found herself standing there with her only response being to raise her eyebrows, and to slowly reach for the other with both hands just in case she were to stumble forward.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t give you a response before!” Penny exclaimed, as though she had anything to possibly apologize for. “I really needed to time to think it over, as silly as it sounds, and then you were talking to your sister and I didn’t want to interrupt…Oh, I should just get to the point, I-I accept!”

Surely she couldn’t have heard that right! “W…w-what?”

Poor Penny’s face had grown even more red, but this time when she spoke she was so build that she took one of Haley’s hands in her own, and she even made sure their eyes met. “I accept y-your offer, Haley. I would love to dance w-with you today…I-if the offer is still good, of course, I understand if I took too long, and it was silly that I needed to consider it anyway, a-and I-I-I-”

“P-Penny!” Haley stuttered out, her own feelings of foolishness somehow overriding her ones of shock and even the ones of absolute delight. “Yes, yes, I still want to dance with you, of course! Do you…Well, would you like to get some punch or something and then, uh, practice with me?”

For the first time since they began talking to each other today, Penny’s shoulders relaxed instead of further tensing, and she gave Haley a little shy smile that made the blonde feel as though she had made the correct call in coming today after all. “I would really like that.”

The Flower Dance really was more fun when she knew somebody else was in it for her, too. Haley gave most of the food a try for the first time- after all, she had been too occupied with herself in previous years- under Penny’s gentle urging, and the two of them were laughing and teasing each other the entire time they rehearsed in a spot of the meadow that Haley never would have considered before, as it was a shady area that offered some protection from the burning sunrays and watchful eyes alike.

“I suppose I am not made for the male part of this dance!” Penny laughed as they stumbled over each other for what was possibly the eightieth time, though Haley certainly didn’t mind having such closeness to someone so clearly wonderful. “I’m sorry, I can try again if you like-”

“No, no, I really don’t mind doing it!” Haley said with a laugh herself, one that was so genuine that it honestly alarmed her to hear it. “Look, I’ve taught most of the guys here how to do it, and usually I’ve had to do it more than once. It’s really no problem.”

“But what about your crown?” The way the auburn-haired woman asked it did little to make her the blonde feel any less icky about her own perceived vanity, but her dance partner was so sincere, so concerned, that she couldn’t even be properly miffed at herself about it. “Will they still give it to you if you’re not leading the other women?”

It was easy for Haley to take both of Penny’s hands now, to kiss them tenderly and to give her a grin despite how a younger version of herself would have scoffed at what she was saying. “My time to be the flower queen has come and gone. I’d rather it go to someone new and deserving…Like you, Penny.”

The way she felt when Penny beamed at her was somehow familiar, and yet entirely new. It was a warmth that came up from somewhere deep inside her, and it spread across her chest and through her just as naturally as her blood pulsed through her veins.

“I’m nervous…” Penny’s smile was absent as they stood in front of each other with the rest of the paired-off members of the community that chose to participate. “I don’t…I don’t want to mess this up for you…”

“You’ve made this entire day worth experiencing, bunny!” Haley exclaimed, the affectionate nickname coming from somewhere in the back of her mind as one she always thought would be cute to call someone. “And I’m totally giving you the crown when Lewis asks in a minute.”

“Haley…Y-you…” Penny stammered briefly, but she was clearly not burdened by the same anxiety that they both had before as she suddenly wrapped the other woman in a tight embrace. “Thank you. Thank you so much for everything today…h-honey.”

When she realized with a small start what it was, this _feeling_ , she could not help but be more enthralled than frightened like she imagined she would be. How could she be afraid when her partner was dancing with a confidence that only she had been able to bring out of the girl, or when she saw how she smiled at her as they exchanged the fanciful footwork with a precision they hadn’t even seen when they were practicing before?

As the music came to an end and Penny raised her arms above her crowned head, Haley was proud to internally call the feeling ‘love’. As a matter of fact, she did not faulter any further in welcoming it as she forewent the usual bow to end the routine and embraced Penny, their giggles immediate as they held each other and finished the final note of the song, once diluted and burdened but now shiny and new, with a brief, delicate kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/write a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	14. Accentuate [Sam/Sebastian]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is always more to learn about those who mean the most to us. Some of it is expected, some of it is not, but all of it is critical. Dedicated to the most excellent Diggy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went through around three ideas before finally committing to this, the one I felt was the strongest. I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I did writing it, and that the most phenomenal individual who this update is dedicated to- Diggy- finds that it was worth the wait!

**Day Fourteen: Transgender Flag and Boundaries**

On one hand, Sam desperately wanted to rush this shower so that he could get to his fiancé more quickly. On the other hand, he was very sure that he probably didn’t smell all that great after such a busy day and sweating literal buckets, so he wanted to be clean and smelling fresh so that Sebastian would actually want to kiss him. He tried to find a compromise between the two, at least making sure to get his hair freed of the built-up oils and go over the most critical areas involved in what was about to happen more than once, but he did not waste time once he got out in toweling off and throwing up the bathroom door.

Much to his surprise and delight, Sebastian was not in the clothes he had been wearing before, nor in a pair of pajamas. In fact, he wasn’t wearing very many clothes at all, and despite the blush brightly adorning his cheeks, he had a shy but still wide smile that portrayed the excitement he was undoubtedly feeling now. Sebastian extended his legs in front of him and leaned back on his elbows now, his eyes lidded and tongue passing over his lips as he seemed to soak in the sight of Sam, who at present was beginning to feel that the mere towel he was wearing wasn’t underdressing after all.

“Come here.”

Two little words were all it took, and Sam was on his fiancé, going to his knees to slide between Sebastian’s thighs as their lips enveloped each other with intense, nearly frantic passion. Despite their not being in either of their houses, in either of their cars, or in some random public place where they could get some privacy, this kind of affection, raw and fervent as it was, was one of if not _the_ most familiar act that they’d participated in today. That was certainly not to say the deviations from normalcy had not been good ones- far from it, actually- but there was still a lot to be said in how they could fall into their rhythm of comforting touch and embracing as they made out in a bed far more comfortable than either one that had their parents’ homes.

“You’re so handsome,” Sam breathed against Sebastian’s ear, the two of them all tangled in each other’s limbs as the smaller young man planted ravenous kisses along his neck. “So handsome, so incredibly hot, all for me.~”

“Sam…” Sebastian huffed, his voice soft and waning with a desperation that brought Sam to pull away enough to look him in the eyes in concern. “Sammy…Take o-off my top.”

It was admittedly probably not very sexy when Sam started and lost his balance in his shock, quite literally face planting into his partner’s shoulder before he scrambled back to get his bearings. “W-whoa!! I mean…Shit, I mean…R-really? You really want to, Sebby??”

His poor Sebastian was clearly embarrassed now, the blush across his face creeping up to his ears and his gaze no longer steadily meeting his own. “I…It was…I-it was really more of a suggestion, or whatever, we don’t have-”

“Yoba, I’m so sorry, Sebby, I didn’t mean to panic like that!” Sam stuttered, pulling himself up to sit on his backside before pulling his lover into his lap with rushed concern tinted with desperation to remedy the misunderstanding. “I just wasn’t expecting it, baby, that’s all! It has nothing to do with the want I have for you, and how excited I am that it is finally alright to take the next step in our relationship. I promise, baby, and I’m really sorry.”

Despite the light smile that was making its’ way across his face now, Sebastian still visibly hesitated as he wrapped his arms lightly around Sam’s collarbone and neck. “Sam…I know I’ve been wanting to take it slow- I mean, _really_ slow, and I know that’s got to get kind of old or whatever, but I…Look, I’m really not…I don’t…I don’t want to go all the way…I’m n-not ready, Sammy, I…I’m sorry, I-I’m-”

“Sebby, Sebby, Sebby!” Sam said hurriedly, his hands tenderly going to cradle his love’s face and wipe gingerly at his cheekbones, his eyelids, his cheeks. “Baby, I don’t mind waiting for the rest of my life if that’s what you need me to do. At the end of the day, I’ve got you, and you’ve got me. Okay? We don’t need to go all in with intimacy for me to know that, I promise.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I really want to do this…Topless,” Sebastian said carefully, his hands sliding slowly down Sam’s back until they came to cup just above his bottom. “You’re too good to me, you know that? Too considerate.”

“Don’t talk like that! Anybody who wouldn’t respect your boundaries wouldn’t be deserving of your love!” Sam insisted at once. “Yoba, Sebby, did…Did someone do that to you? Before?”

The way that Sebastian only further averted his gaze gave Sam his answer clearly, filling his heart with a heavy, dark sense of rage that he tried not to let show too much, lest he make his man more anxious. There were only so many people in Pelican Town, and yet out of the exes that his lover had opened up to him about in the two and a half years they’d been officially dating, Sam only knew one that was without a doubt from their area, and there was absolutely no question that Abigail would never do something so horrible. Of course, Seb had been open that he had seen other people outside of their small town before the two of them fell in love, but without knowing their names or even their genders, Sam had nobody to go on a rampage on.

“It doesn’t matter now, Samshine,” Sebastian prompted softly, bringing him out of his haze of unquelled anger and want to avenge his poor Sebby. “I am not worried about it anymore. You’re not that person, and I trust you. It really has nothing to do with them, anyway, it’s really…Well, it’s all me and my not being ready quite yet. I know I will be eventually, it’s just…Not yet. I’m sorry, b-baby.”

Samshine. Baby. Sebastian only used those nicknames when he was feeling fully open and trusting that he would not be teased for showing his most genuine, vulnerable side, and that once again said more than enough than any words possibly could. Sam gingerly kissed his lips, sliding his own hands to the same spot on his fiancé’s back that Seb’s were on his, and looked deeply into his soulful brown eyes while allowing the beginnings of tears of passion to form freely in his own.

“There is nothing at all to be sorry for,” Sam assured. “I’ll be ready when you are, and as long as you’re respected and comfortable, I know I can and will be, too. I love you, my handsome, incredibly skilled, awesomely talented, and unique Ian.”

“And I love you, my most wonderful, gorgeous, undeniably sweet and far-too-pure Samshine,” Sebastian replied warmly, bringing their lips together once more and lifting up his top with impassioned haste.

It was certainly not as though this was not a great honor and sign of trust from his most adored. Beneath the crop top with the outline of Saturn adorning the center that Sebby had been teasing him with all night, there was a rolled camisole, and then the gorgeous tattoos that were incorporated around the scars that were invaluably significant to his love. The tattoos began as tree branches, ones that were designed to look weathered and decorated with autumn-dyed leaves. The branches extended both upward and downward, the longest of which extended around the base and the top of his ribcage, respectively. Their base limbs did not fully cover, rather subtly accentuate, the surgery scars that were the remnants of a life of misery and false identity that once plagued him for his first twenty-two years. In the two upper brambles of the branches across his chest, there sat two bats- one that he’d said was a fruit eating variety, and one that drank blood- and just under his sternum, the outline of the moon was adorned with pieces of what looked like bits of frozen tear gems. Every piece of this art piece was gorgeous and intentional, designed mostly by Sebastian himself, and receiving it had taken several trips to the extremely high-quality parlor that was a full four hours from Pelican Town. Sam had accompanied him each time, just as he had for the surgery itself, and so it only made since that tonight, the one-year anniversary of that procedure, that Sam both get to see it in more than just pictures, and that he get down on one knee and ask for his love’s hand in marriage.

“Perfect. Absolutely perfect,” Sam breathed against the ink adorning his Sebby’s chest, lacing one hand with Sebastian’s dominant one, which was also the one with the mermaid pendant attached to the ring. “Thank you for allowing me to love it like I have loved the rest of you, my sweet.”

“Well, I can only accept that if you allow me to thank you for being mine,” Sebastian teased with a raising of his eyebrows, a notion that both ignited Sam’s cheeks and heart with more passion than he knew how to describe.

“Oh, Ian…I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	15. Grow Old With Me [Penny/Leah]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To say I went a little overboard with this one-shot for this pairing that I love so dearly may be a little bit of an understatement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BE SURE TO READ THE END NOTES FOR A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING THIS UPDATE!!! ♥
> 
> (Also, I have been working on this literally all day. I'm exhausted but feel very proud of myself as well as extremely impressed.)

**Day Fifteen: Out on a Date and Growing Old Together**

_ Nine _

“Hey!! Are you okay?”

Penny started at the sound of another girl’s voice, especially because it wasn’t one that she had heard before. She looked up from where she was knelt in the snow, her hands just barely clothed by the tattered mittens that were nearly too small for her to struggle into, and took in the sight of the well-dressed stranger before her. She looked to be around Penny’s age, maybe a bit older, and the first two things that hit the nine-year-old were that they both had types of red hair, and that this other girl was _incredibly_ pretty. While her own clothes were hard to fit inside and didn’t look like anyone else’s at school, this girl had on an outfit that looked even more fancy than anything she’d ever seen anyone else her age, with her gem-laced white coat and clearly fanciful name brands not at all hidden. This girl’s hair was gingerier than Penny’s, much longer, and definitely cleaner in it’s two braids that fell just past her waist. For the life of her, the smaller girl had no idea why someone like _her_ would want to talk to her, but she didn’t want to be rude, so she stopped her work digging into the frozen Earth and offered up a nervous, shy smile.

“Y-yes, I’m alright,” Penny offered up in a small voice. “Uh…T-thank you for as-asking?”

“Are you looking for something?” The other girl continued without missing a bit, tilting her head to the side and exposing more of her face from the massive scarf around her neck.

“I…” Penny hesitated, unable to stop the grimace when she thought about how furious her mother had been the couple of times she’d been careless enough to mention that she had to figure out dinner for herself more nights than not because of how the money was always spent on booze first. “I…I’m just looking to see if I can find any winter r-roots…Y-yeah! Yeah, I read about them in the library, and…I wondered if they tasted…good.”

“Oh, okay!” Thankfully, the other girl seemed to buy this easily, and stuck out her hand in offering to shake Penny’s. “I’m Leah! What’s your name?”

“P-Penny,” the smaller girl offered, accepting her hand with the same bashfulness and blushing more profusely when it was met with a very firm shake.

“Here, you can tell me how to look for the roots, and then I’ll help you!” Leah said eagerly, plopping into the snow right beside her and giving her a grin. “It’ll be an adventure just for us!”

Though she had no idea why someone so obviously _cool_ would want to help someone plain like her out, Penny nevertheless accepted and set about trying to explain how the ends of roots tended to stick up through the snow, and how the coloration of the ground could help show where other hidden artifacts could also be. Several minutes later, the two of them had found one lost book from the library (which Penny was particularly shocked by, as it was a classic she had been hoping to read it if it was ever found), three winter roots, a snow yam, and a couple of Joja colas that the two of them decided to drink together.

“I…I don’t mean to pry, but…What brings you to Pelican Town, anyway? I’ve never seen you here before, or in school…” Penny ventured asking as they sat side by side on the small, rickety steps that led into the entrance to her mother’s trailer.

“My father is from here! We’re on vacation!” Leah chirped, one hand reaching out and brushing stray hairs from Penny’s face with a tenderness that Penny had only experienced a few select times in her young life. “Mama and Papa are in the saloon over there, and I got bored playing pool with the grown-ups, so I came out here.”

“T-they…Y-your Mama and Papa drink, t-too?” Penny ventured in a moment of bravery that immediately summoned a hot sting of regret in her chest as the question left her lips.

“Hmm?” Thankfully, Leah seemed to be oblivious to the worse implications that were made in asking such a thing, and she simply tilted her head to the wide and blinked at her with those huge blue eyes. “Well, yeah, every once and a while. They’re silly when they’ve had a little too much!”

“T-they…they don’t get drunk, do they?” Penny’s voice was barely audible now, shame and fear making her feel as though she ought to simply bury herself in the snow and save her mother from the anger if she ever found out she’d been talking about it to other people.

Leah considered this for a long moment, then shook her head. “Nope! I mean, not that I know of, but sometimes they go out and let my stay with Nana and Pop-Pop, or Mamaw and Papaw, or my friends…Why? Do your parents do that stuff?”

Coming from Leah, the question was hinted with concern but mostly seemed to be from pure curiosity, which was a good sign to the nine-year-old shrinking into herself. Penny decided as much as she tried to sit up just a little straighter, tried to be brave so her new friend didn’t try and worry enough to talk to her parents about it. “U-uh…So-sometimes. Mama sleeps a lot when she does it, but it’s not…bad.”

It didn’t ever feel good to lie, especially not to the girl who had already helped her so much, but if Leah noticed she certainly didn’t let on. “Oh, okay! That’s cool, too. Mama says we gotta ‘respect other people’s life choices’.”

“Y-yeah.” Penny gave her a nervous smile, looking down to where their feet were resting mere inches apart and suddenly wondering what it might feel like to touch Leah’s hand. “Uh…Are your parents going to get worried about you? Or…or can you come inside?”

As if on cue, a small, curvy woman stepped outside and around to the side of the saloon, her own ginger hair blowing back from her face as she squinted in their direction. “Leah Renee! Come here right this second!”

Now it was Leah’s turn to blush brightly, hurrying to her feet and looking to Penny apologetically. “That’s my mama, I gotta go now…I’m sorry, I wanna play, I really do! Maybe Mama will let me come over before we go home?”

Penny smiled sadly, her chest aching as she thought of how she could never, ever let her new friend see the house while her own mother was home, especially not once it got all dirty again. “Y-yeah, maybe.”

“Here!” Leah suddenly unwound her scarf and slipped over Penny’s head, the thick, comfy fabric immediately cocooning most of the smaller girl’s face. “You can give that back to me next time we see each other!”

“L-Leah!” Penny squeaked in alarm, but a part of her that made her feel embarrassed was insisting she not protest the free winter gear, so she simply grabbed the other’s hands and gave them a tight squeeze. “T-thank you, Leah…Y-your mama isn’t going t-to…hurt you, i-i-is she?”

“Mama?” Leah blinked as if the very idea was something she’d never considered before, glancing back to her expectant parent before shaking her head. “No way. She may talk to me about not ‘scaring her like that’ or somethin’, but she won’t hurt me! My mama is the best mama in the whole world!”

Relief filled the gnawing fear that had struck Penny’s heart, and she gave the slightly taller girl a tight hug, murmuring that it definitely sounded like it before Leah rushed to meet ‘Mama.’ The small nine-year-old watched as the woman leaned down slightly to meet Leah’s eyes, how she put her hands on each of her shoulders without gripping and moved her mouth quickly, undoubtedly scolding her but not moving in any way to indicate violence. Leah lowered her head a bit and nodded, occasionally moving on her own lips, but then ‘Mama’ hugged her tightly and assured her. She then seemed to ask a question, and the two of their gazes suddenly turned to Penny, who immediately flushed and stumbled her way into her trailer with the treasures that had been found clutched securely in her own oversized, thin coat.

She certainly did not know it then, but that would be the last time she saw Leah for several years, but it was not the last time she saw her again. She made sure to keep her scarf well-loved and cared for every cold day thereafter.

* * *

_ Twenty _

“Have you met the new neighbor yet, Miss Penny??”

“I have not, but I am going to meet them as soon as I drop you two off,” Penny replied patiently as she walked her two students back to their homes. “Remember those muffins we had for lunch? I made a whole batch just for them.”

“Her!” Jas interjected helpfully from where she was clinging onto Penny’s arm. “Aunt Marnie and I went and met her yesterday! She’s super nice, and she even let me unpack some of her art stuff for her and put it on her shelves!”

“Oh, really?” Penny hummed, delighted at once that this new mysterious artist who’d just moved to Pelican Town was seemingly good with children. “That was very kind of you to do, Jas. I’m proud of you, and that gets you five star points for doing something considerate to others.”

“That’s not fair!!” Vincent, who had begun this topic in the first place, halted in place and looked up with teary eyes at once. “I haven’t got to even meet the new lady!! Mom isn’t taking us ‘til tonight!!”

“It’s alright, Vincent. I’m sure you can do something for her then, and then you’ll get five star points, too,” Penny interjected gently, reaching out and bringing the energetic, impassioned boy to her other side. “I bet you could draw her a pretty picture to welcome her to town. That would a very nice and considerate thing to do, and I bet that she will love it.”

“Really??” At once the tears were forgotten and Vincent was all smiles again, and Penny was left internally wishing that her life problems could be so calmly and easily solved. “Alright!! I’ll do that, Miss Penny, I promise!!”

“I am sure you will!” Penny gently encouraged. “Thank you both for wanting to do nice things for the new neighbor. I am sure it can be very scary to move to a brand-new place.”

“Mhm! Sam said he was so nervous when we moved here that he didn’t wanna talk to anyone for two whole weeks!” Vincent exclaimed with a solemn nod, which Jas reciprocated.

“Uncle Shane and I moved here when I was four,” the girl offered. “I’m going to ask him how he got comfortable again!”

“That sounds like a good thing to do,” Penny mused as they came to a stop in front of the Morgenstein house. “Alright, you two. I want you both to ask your families what it felt like moving here, and that will be what we talk about in our journals next Tuesday, alright? Be sure to do your math sheets and read your chapters and be very safe this weekend. I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.”

“You too, Miss Penny!! Bye!!’ The two chorused, Vincent bounding into his home while Jas sprinted ahead toward her close-by ranch.

Once she was able to see Jas safely inside and to wave a hello to Marnie, who was out tending to the cows, Penny adjusted her tote bag anxiously on her shoulder and began trekking down toward the cottage that had just been built down on the riverside. She really hadn’t heard much about this newcomer other than she had never lived in Pelican Town before now, but she did have family who lived here before her, and that was an artist who wanted to use the nature all around this little town to inspire her work. It wasn’t as though she was the first creative to come down this way for the same reasons, but she _was_ the first one in around twenty-five or so years who actually outright moved here rather than simply passed through. Shane and Jas had been the first new people to have moved here in nearly ten full years before now, so with the entire town buzzing as it had been leading up to this, it filled Penny with anxious doubt that she was socially distanced away from pretty much everyone enough that she barely knew _anything_ about this girl.

As she approached the cottage with her heart in her throat, she considered simply leaving the basket of muffins on the handle of the front door. Surely it wouldn’t be terribly long before this woman wanted to meet the rest of the town, and they were bound to run into each other eventually, so surely it would be alright to meet her then, right? Penny was quite sure she had nothing to truly offer this stranger unless she somehow had hidden that she had children, and she was beginning to feel properly foolish for trying to intrude on this new neighbor when she was undoubtedly up to her eyes with unpacking and trying to settle in. All of Pelican Town had surely been harassing her enough- and she’d just encouraged more of it, too! - so she was just about to go through with her self-deprecation fueled retreat when the door abruptly swung open and she came nose-to-nose with…

“L-Leah?!”

The young woman in front of her yelps and stumbles back slightly in surprise, her ginger hair now pulled it and twirled into a messy bun atop her head, her eyes the same blue as the depths of the ocean. Then she blinks once, twice, and her face brightens up with recognition that is so sincere and eager that it does funny things to Penny’s rapidly beating heart.

“Penny!!” Leah exclaims, throwing her arms around the still slightly-smaller girl and embracing her with all of the warmth she did back when they first met. “Oh my Yoba, how have you been?? It’s been…Yoba’s panties, what, nine, ten years?? Come in, come in!”

And then Penny is standing in homely cottage of the girl who had once come into her life as bright and as beautiful as star, the girl she doubted she’d ever get to repay her incredible kindness to, the girl who was back in life and seemingly prepared to stay this time. As it turned out, Leah was an artist across various mediums, and she was every bit as enthusiastic and earnest as Penny had remembered her being all those years ago. ‘Mama and Papa’ were living content lives in Vexington, a state nearly nine full hours away from Pelican Town, and had evidently been and still were proud foster parents for several children for the past seven years, two of which they had adopted and three more that they were in the process of doing the same for. Leah, for the obvious adoration and closeness she shared with her parents, had come to Zuzu City to pursue her art degree and had met her now ex there. Breaking free from that ex is what led her to returning to the quiet town that had made such an impression on her when she was nearly eleven years old, a fact that delighted and intrigued Penny beyond what she felt she was able to properly put into words. When she’d given her the poppyseed muffins, Leah responded extremely positively (unlike the children, both of which had either politely not finished theirs or outright said they weren’t very good) and even gave _her_ a portion of the pound cake that Marnie had made for her before they exchanged social medias and phone numbers, promising several times to each other to keep in touch.

As Penny made her way back to her trailer nearly two full hours later, she had a feeling that something significant had truly begun with re-meeting her old hour-long friend, but she couldn’t quite discern what that was.

* * *

_ Twenty-One _

“I’ve lived in Pelican Town my whole life. Can you believe that?” Penny says one day to Leah, because Leah has been telling her all about the places she went as a girl and as a woman and it feels remarkable that she herself as never so much as been on a proper vacation.

“I think it’s a little more normal to have been in one place rather than to bounce around all the time because your mom is in the military before she got hurt,” Leah supplies casually, turning over a couple of overturned pinecones with her foot and delicately but expertly plucking out the fruit that they had been partially concealing. “I can hardly believe this orchid has been empty for all of these years! There must be enough here to make a real living!”

Penny decides that this is not the time to bring up the silly pipe-dream she’d begun to have about buying this property and tending to them, maybe even having a proper farm in time with someone she loved. “I suppose there’s a lot out there I’ll never experience.”

“Nonsense!” Leah exclaims, turning to face Penny properly and giving her a crooked, shyness-tinted grin that brings out the pinkening of her cheeks. “Next time I have enough saved up to start travelling this country and beyond again, I’m taking you with me, Miss Barnett!”

“Is that a promise?” Penny teases, because surely her good friend can’t be serious.

“Absolutely!”

Leah then begins to start scaling a tree to pluck some apples free from the branch they’re bending in half with their weight, and Penny thinks that she just may hold it her to it if the time ever does truly come.

* * *

_ Twenty-Four  _

‘I want to take you out tonight, be ready in an hour and a half’ is what Leah had texted her an hour and twenty minutes ago. Penny hadn’t had any real plans for the evening- what else was new, she thought with ever-persistent tug of self-deprecation that plagued her constantly- so she had spent this time showing, shaving, and even putting on the makeup that she had bought the containers of three years ago and hardly worn since. She was putting her wavy locks into their usual two braids to be tied into buns on either side of her neck, but then she stopped, her appearance in the mirror hardly what she had grown to expect when she caught glimpses of herself. Her face looked alive with the makeup, all of which was carefully applied via the few things her mother passed onto her when she was younger and the rest from YouTube, and she was even wearing something new and stylish; a royal-blue dress that reminded her of Leah’s eyes, one that was held on each side of her shoulders and descended down her with it’s eloquent-looking fabric and fake but pretty jewels that brought out her waist, just underneath her bust, and her neckline. Something usual with her hair against such an ensemble simply would not do!

When Leah arrived in their driveway exactly when she went meant to, Penny tried not to fall all over herself to greet her in the doorway. Despite her best attempts, she could not help the small audible gasp that escaped her lips when she took in the sight of one of her closest friends in the universe in all of her glory. The ginger-haired beauty was particularly captivating tonight in her sea-green dress that went all the way to her ankles, the fabric loose down most of her body but hugging in just the right areas, and the opening between the base of her neck and her bust was just lengthy enough to be naughty but not extremely sensual. Some of her curls were contained in a bun on the top of her head, but the rest of them flowed freely down just past her shoulder blades, and her face had hints of light makeup as well, as though Penny had not been the only one desperately hoping to impress.

“You are positively radiant tonight,” Penny breathed before her anxiety could get the better of her.

The way Leah beamed at her now sent the butterflies in her belly into a frenzied swarm, but they were cooled with remarkable speed when said best friend took her hand, as she often seemed to, and gave her a wink. “You are absolutely exquisite tonight yourself, Miss Barnett. Shall we?”

“We shall,” Penny said with faux royal overenunciation to mirror Leah’s initial question, the two of them immediately dissolving into giggles as they made their way toward the brand new theatre on the other side of town.

The movie, which was a historical coming-of-age piece that was phenomenally acted and beautifully made, had them both in tears at two separate points (even despite Penny knowing the fate of each sister that the story was centered on.) They were, much to Penny’s relief, able to laugh at the destruction their feelings had reaped upon their make-up, and the two of them stepped outside to find Sam’s car nearby the door with the headlights on. Penny was intended to say a quick hello and then ask Leah what they were going to do for dinner, but much to her surprise, Sam hopped out just to open the backseat door and gesture for them to climb inside. Leah, with her usual level-headed certainty, thanked him with a theatrical curtsy before climbing inside and extending her hand immediately to Penny.

“Sam here as agreed to drive us to dinner,” Leah elaborated when she was met with Penny’s open-mouthed stillness. “He’s a good friend, this one.”

“I had no idea the two of you even knew each other!” Penny exclaimed, unable to hide or prevent the massive grin now making her cheeks ache a bit as she hurried to sit beside her fellow redhead.

“It turns out that Leah is super into music, too! She bought our CD at our first concert!” Sam announced as he hopped back behind the wheel, talking excitedly about his band and making innuendos that almost sounded to Penny like he was insinuating that she and Leah were more than ‘just friends’, but before she could have him confirm or deny these things they were parked at Cindersap Forrest and Leah was pulling her out by the hand and thanking Sam again for ‘all of his help’ before he drove away with a massive smile of his own.

“Goodness, what was all of that-?” Penny began to ask, certain now that she was certainly the last to know about something going on between two of her closest comrades, but she gently cut off by Leah’s finger over her lips before she noticed a glowing light coming from the nearby lake.

“Trust me,” Leah prompted, as though she would ever need to ask for it, and the two of them walked arm-in-arm until Penny could clearly see the beautiful setup that had been mostly concealed by a set of homemade curtains, ones that the two of them had actually dyed together, hanging from the most massive tree in the area.

It was certainly all a mystical sight to behold. Fairy lights were wrapped around the surrounding trees, their lights illuminating the otherwise inky blackness of night, while solar-powered outdoor lamps wee pushed into the soft dirt leading to the pier. On said pier, a hand-carved round table sat in approximately the middle, and one chair sat the top center and bottom center of said table, respectively. A feast of food for two was all set up on the fairly sizable table, and to top it all off, there were two towels sat on the very end of the dock with swimming suits that looked like their own.

“L-Leah…” Penny had no idea where to begin to vocalize her thoughts. Once again, her dear companion simply smiled, excusing her from asking question as she stood before her, her body illuminated beautifully by the ever-so-slightly twinkling lights.

“I have had the privilege of being your friend for fourteen years,” Leah said, her voice strong with confidence but soft around the edges with deep sincerity. “And I have had the honor of being a close one for the past three or so. I…I read somewhere once that the person that you think about first when you wake up in the mornings, and the person that you think about right before you go to sleep at night, is the one that you love the most in the world. For the past few months…Well, that person has been _you._ I know that you know that I’m a lesbian, a-and you’ve kind of been questioning your own sexuality ever since you and Sam broke up…Well, around the same time I started getting this feelings really strong, honestly. I’ve always r-really, _really_ liked you Penny, and…Well, I would be incredibly honored if you would give me the chance of becoming m-more than…just your lady friend.”

“Oh, Leah…” Penny whispered as tears of joy mixed with astonishment that this was really, truly happening to her, so much like she’d always dreamed she would one day be asked to be someone’s partner. “I’ve felt the same way about you f-for…Yoba, I imagine s-since we first met! A-and you look so beautiful tonight, I…”

She gasped softly as Leah began to close the space between them, her dear companion’s arms circling around her to rest at her lower back, and Penny did not hesitate in enveloping their lips to each other’s.

* * *

_ Twenty-Six _

“…I now pronounce you wife and…Well, wife! You may kiss.”

Penny was not sure she would ever be in such absolute bliss as she was in the moment that she was able to kiss Leah, _her_ Leah, her _wife_ , beneath the alter. A cry of joy erupted from the crowd over the sound of Pam ugly-crying into a handkerchief, Marnie’s singing of a traditional wedding song immediately following it, and both women could not help but laugh and begin to join in as confetti (biodegradable, of course!) erupted from the specialized devices set up on the surrounding buildings and balloons (also eco-friendly) were released into the air. Leah grinned at her the way she had when they first met, her laughter the most beautiful sound as they embraced as wives, their rocking a kind of improvised slow-dance as they relished in the feeling of being in each other’s arms as full-on spouses.

“I didn’t get the chance to tell you this beforehand, but I really love how you have a suit incorporated into your dress,” Penny murmured into her wife’s ear, referring lovingly to suit-like corset and coat tails that were expertly sewn into the pale green wedding gown Leah was wearing.

“And I love how airy and floofy yours is!” Leah murmured as reference to Penny’s gown, which had a tulle base and a train that was embellished with real bits of diamonds (curtesy of Clint and their local farmer/miner/fisherwoman), with a mischievous giggle. “Though I must admit I am looking forward to see you without it~”

“At least contain yourself a bit until after the reception!” Penny giggled herself, her blush simply a manifestation of her absolute elation and more internal desire for much of the same. “I would like to enjoy our poppyseed cake first, Mrs. Barnett-Coleman!”

Leah hummed softly, giving her another impish wink before planting another passionate, warm kiss on her expectant lips. “Whatever you say, Mrs. Barnett-Coleman.”

* * *

_ Twenty-Nine _

It had, admittedly, been extremely hard to wait these three years for Leah to be ready to begin expanding their family, but Penny was fueled by the assurances that her wife would eventually be willing as well as the absolute determination to not be anything like horrid wench of an ex of her wife’s. At long last, her most treasured love was genuinely ready, even excited to be beginning their journey into parenthood, and was waiting with just as baited breath as they received a notification letter from the adoption agency they’d applied to around a month ago.

“T-they…” Penny’s own hands were trembling too much to be able to hold and read the paper, so she held on tight to her Leah instead with her face pressed against the back of her shoulder as her wife read the news. “They…YOBA’S GRACES!”

Before she could even begin to ask what that meant, Penny was swept up in a tight embrace and a long, passionate kiss. Unable to allow herself to get too caught up in the speculation, she pulled away long enough to whisper, ‘So…I-it went through? W-we were approved??”

“WE’RE GOING TO BE PARENTS!” Leah outright squealed with unabashed delight, and Penny immediately began to laugh and cry simultaneously as she scrambled to continue their kiss of victory and joy.

* * *

_ Thirty-Four  _

“We’ve come pretty far, haven’t we?” Penny remarked with the kind of sleepy bliss that could only come from leading a day where they seemed to largely get it right, coupled with the fact they led largely happy lives overall.

“Let’s see~” Leah drawled, her arm finding it’s usual place around her as she snuggled up against her chest and shoulder. “Two wonderful children, a massive, blossoming garden, a once cozy cottage that we transformed into a real home, and I’m married to a beautiful, kind, virtuous woman who is also the love of my life…I would say we certainly have, my pretty like watermelon.”

Penny giggled and leaned up to kiss her, their hands sliding all over each other’s bodies as they snuggled into their bed and soaked in the joy that came from having active intimate lives. Both of them silently knew that it would only be so long until Jeremiah, their active, thoughtful, and sensitive five-year-old, padded in to snuggle away the bad dreams, or Sylvia, their sweet but fussy seven-month-old, cried out, but they never had any real issue with taking what time they had and making more than the most of it.

* * *

_ Thirty-Five _

“Love of My Life? I’m worn out from teaching today,” Penny said with exaggerated fatigue in her words to conceal the same kind of jittery excitement she’d felt when she realized that Leah was just as eager to call her hers. “Would you mind making dinner?”

Poor Leah looked as though she’d had a long day herself, especially with the paint still splattered on various spots of her skin, but she gave her a smile that did little to make her heart stop trying to beat right out of her chest. “Of course, sugar. What would you like?”

“Hmm…Maybe something baked in the oven?” Penny mused, trying her damndest to be casual. “Oh, shoot, I think I might have left the skillet in there, though…”

Immediately Leah went to check, and when she opened the door to potentially pull the offending device out, she simply found an almost comedically large bun inside instead. The slightly older woman pulled it out with her mitts as if just to be safe, inspecting it with absolute confusion on her face before looking up for explanation from her wife. Penny had no sooner grabbed the pregnancy test from her apron than she saw the pieces connect in her lover’s mind, an action that was swiftly followed by a sharp gasp and Leah swiftly fumbling to free her hands from the mitts and bread.

“Yo-you’re pregnant?!”

Penny, not trusting herself to speak with swell of emotions in her throat, simply nodded earnestly and laughed through her elated tears as Leah embraced her and danced around with her, whooping and cheering. The two of them had been trying to use donors for the past two years in an attempt to have a child of their own using three exceptional men who’d agreed to be donors, one of which was their very own dear friend Elliot, and it had finally, _finally_ worked. It had been nearly impossible for Penny to keep the secret for the week that she did, but now her lady (and probably most of Pelican Town) knew, and their beautiful, joyous family was growing yet again.

* * *

_ Forty-Seven _

Simply put, it would be difficult enough to raise six children, even with consideration that each of them were loved fiercely and perfectly imperfect members of the family, but raising two teenagers, a preteen, twins and a toddler felt impossible a solid 65% of the time.

* * *

_ Fifty-Nine _

“Hey, would you like some help?”

Penny smiled brightly up to her Leah from where she was knelt in the wet dew of early morning, her hands covered in dirt as she carefully pulled a perfectly ripe melon from its’ vine. “I most certainly would.”

The two of them worked as one to finish completing the morning chores that they usually alternated on- tending to their gardens and feeding their pets- before doing a little morning meditation together in order to keep their limberness and spirits centered. It was the day before their well-loved and upstanding eldest daughter would be married to the love of _her_ life, and Penny could not help but reminisce again that it had nearly been fifty whole years since she first the person who she would go on to love so fiercely and so truly. Leah seemed to be thinking the same thing, as she gave her a smile before sliding something cool but light into her hand from where it had evidently been in one of her vest pockets.

“I want you to wear this tomorrow,” her Leah said as she admired with awe the beautiful string of emeralds, all of which were on a sterling-silver chain that would go beautifully when the dress she had picked out. “And one more thing, Penny…”

“Yes?” Penny asked, already knowing the answer but loving how the phrase they’d both grown to love exchanging half as often as they did kisses and hugs.

“Grow old with me?” Leah requested knowingly like the adorable dork she was, leaning in for a kiss immediately, which Penny just as readily accepted.

“But of course, my darling,” Penny murmured against her lips as they held one another with the certainty that they would never truly let go. “The best, after all, is yet to be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS ONE-SHOT WILL BE EXTENDED AND UPLOADED AS A ONE-SHOT FIC OF IT'S OWN! 
> 
> There are two parts already written of this that I intentionally omitted from this update, as I want there to be plenty of incentive to go and support this one-shot as a separate entity once it is put up!! It will exchange this story by MORE THAN A THOUSAND WORDS (at the very least!), so if you would like to see more angst, Penny being a badass, more details about their children, and more, PLEASE be sure to check it out! I hope to have it completed and up within the next week! from tomorrow! 
> 
> ONCE AGAIN: THIS ONE-SHOT WILL BE EXTENDED AND UPLOADED AS A ONE-SHOT FIC OF IT'S OWN! 
> 
> (And as always, please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥)


	16. Duo [Haley/Elliott]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is always comforting to have the confidence and adoration of those that we love, especially when life begins to change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is the chapter summary? Hard to say. I love this ship a lot.

**Day Sixteen: Playing With Dogs and “Who Would Have Thought?”**

Containing her excitement, Haley decided, was impossible, so there was absolutely no point in trying. She bounced her legs up and down steadily as she alternated the windows she was looking out of in her own freshly-cleaned car, which she had given the honors of driving over to her husband, as well as looking to her somehow much more outwardly calm life partner. The seventh or eighth time that she did it, he managed to catch her gaze and raise an eyebrow playfully, a gesture that sent her into a fit of giggles before he even reached over to affectionately tickle her belly.

“My, my, my, you’re all worked up today,” Elliott teased with faux formality, as though he himself hadn’t been practically shaking out of his own skin the night before with anxious anticipation for this morning to arrive. “Are you quite certain you’re ready to-?”

“Yes, I am ‘quite certain’ I’m ready to play with the puppies!!” Haley exclaimed, throwing her head onto the shoulder that was the closest to her and giving a huff of ‘offense.’ “What’s got you being such a bully today, hmmm? Could it be your _own_ nerves?”

Despite how he let out an (adorable) little snort and huffed “Preposterous!”, his shy embarrassment was all-too clear, and Haley rewarded his being flustered with a tender kiss to his cheek before lacing her fingers into his own unoccupied ones.

Ever since the two of them moved in together, eventually expanding their home to make room for any future members of the family and having a gorgeous, joy-filled wedding, the knowledge that they would eventually have children and make their little family more than themselves was a constant. It was equally constant knowledge that the two of them were simply not ready yet. No matter how they both wanted it, they’d had numerous discussions concerning their mutual emotional maturity and the things they wanted to do before fully committing to the domestic life, so they were going to wait at least another two years before they’d begin to put in applications to become parents. The ‘baby fever’ and desires were still there regardless, and so going to the animal shelter to pick out and bring a ‘fur baby’ into their lives was their most ideal course of action. Of course, they would not be getting rid of whatever dog or cat they got today once they _did_ have human children; this furry friend was going to be a permanent member of the family beginning today, and they were just as jittery, overjoyed, and terrified as if they were bringing a child in.

“You know, it really does seem excessive that we have to come all the way out here for something so common,” Elliott mused as they drove past the market indicating that they’d entered the city limits of Zuzu City. “Surely there are strays that exist in Pelican Town, Calico Dessert…”

“It does seem weird,” Haley said with a small frown. “I know that Emily has talked about opening one up with Sandy, but…Well, you know my sister. She says a lot of things.”

“Perhaps we could help out in some way if that dream were to come to fruition,” Elliott offered. “Whether it be physically or financially, provided we are in a place to do so.”

“I would _love_ to help take care of puppies and kitties!” Haley chirped. “That would be, like, the _best_ job.”

Elliott nodded along with one of his signature patient smiles, but it was plain to see that his mind had drifted elsewhere, and lines of anxiety were beginning to crease into his handsome face. Haley unbuckled her seatbelt and slid over to be directly beside him now, adjusting the middle seat’s built-in restraint around her before fully snuggling into his side so that he wouldn’t fret. Her gesture was immediately received by Elliott wrapping his right arm around her, his hand lightly resting just over her right hip pocket, and the two of them remained there in appreciation for the other’s presence until he finally had to pull away in order to turn onto the side road that led to where Zuzu’s Sanctuary for Second Chances was nestled.

“We’re going to do a great job,” Haley murmured as the paved avenues turned to gravel that crunched beneath the tires. “And you’re going to be the perfect pet father.”

“I just…” Elliott began, grimacing on whatever he was thinking about before the words had a chance to be formed.

“Go ahead, you can tell me,” she encouraged gently, only to be met with him shaking his head and letting out a small sigh.

“I do not want to worry you. I know that I am not being particularly rational…I just need to see this process into fruition, I suppose,” Elliott said with a tiny, sadness-tinted smile. “I will be alright soon.”

Reluctantly, Haley allowed the subject to be let go. She was no stranger to having to work through mental hang-ups on her own time and by herself, and yet she was an extrovert at heart, so it was incredibly difficult to imagine how anybody- even her beloved writer of a spouse- could ever prefer solitude over company, particularly in suffering. Nevertheless, she wanted to respect his wishes, and she wanted to be what her sister called ‘emotionally intuitive partner’, so she silently resolved to herself that she would wait to talk about it until either he began to become more visibly distressed or that he brought it up again.

The building, unlike so many of those surrounding it, may not have been new, but it also wasn’t pushed into every space that could have potentially existed between all of the other buildings, so that was pretty nice. The entire wall facing the parking area was painted a deep green that was clearly meant to resemble grass, and the rest of the figures were various breeds of both dogs and cats in play. Once the two them had amply stretched out from the two-and-a-half hour car ride, Haley slid a hand back into one of Elliot’s, giggling despite how she naturally expected how he brought it up to his lips with a tender kiss. As they rounded the corner, she couldn’t help but to notice that the front of the building was painted in pastel colors, all of which did a surprisingly good job covering the outlines of the sign letters that had been there beforehand. From their massive presence in the rest of the city, it was immediately obvious that this was once a Joja warehouse, and she could not help but to be pleased with the idea that this place was now flourishing with lives and joy rather than whatever overproduced corporate material was here beforehand.

…Yoba, she really _had_ been spending too much time with their resident farmer.

The receptionists that greeted them were polite but clearly busy with their paperwork and calls, so it was nice to hear that they were able to head straight back to the kennels to meet the various dogs. A cacophony of barks was released from behind the door as soon as they opened it, and Haley gave Elliott’s hand a tight squeeze and a reassuring smile as he noticeably paled.

“They’re good boys and girls,” she said encouragingly. “Let’s go meet them.”

They did indeed meet a multitude of very good boys and very good girls, so much to the point that Haley was very certain that she could die right here and not be able to tell the difference because she was in Heaven. Elliot, for his part, seemed to be enjoying himself as well, though he was clearly getting a bit overstimulated after they’d spent over thirty minutes meeting the various pooches. He decided to take a little detour into the cat area thereafter, leaving Haley to enthusiastically greet and pet as many of the pooches as humanly possible. She was so absorbed in this that she was felt as though she startled straight out of her own skin when Elliott had suddenly returned, the sunbeams on the floor were in a different location than the last time she’d looked up long enough to get a sense of the time, and he was wound up in the way he typically was when he’d had a brilliant writing idea and needed to find an outlet for it immediately.

“I’ve made a friend!” He announced proudly. “Please join me and meeting her yourself!”

Haley was happy to do so (after giving the pit bull in front of her plenty of head scratches, of course), and was promptly enamored with the incredibly precious kitties that were to be found in one of the three ‘kitty rooms.’ She sanitized thoroughly and proceeded to pet all of the meowing furry friends until she reached Elliott, who for his part had gone straight for a set of larger cages. While many of these had kittens in them, which both of them agreed were extremely precious, one had something that Haley had not been expecting in the slightest.

“Is…is that a dog?” She asked softly, her eyes widening as the pup in question- one with curly, light brown fur and a smaller-medium build- regarded her with a tail wagging around a million miles per hour.

“Yes!” Elliott announced proudly. “This is Teddy, and right here beside her is Mister Jeeves! Teddy is a cockapoo, and Jeeves here is a tuxedo, and they are very, very precious!"”

Haley peeked over and was rewarded with the sight of a cat, one who looked as though he were just now waking up. “ _Aww_!! Look at them, Eli, they’re so precious! Oh my Yoba, are they best friends??”

“They are!” Elliott was finally exhibiting the same unfiltered joy that she’d seen before when they decided they were ready to have pets, and it positively melted her heart to see him getting to his knees in order to give head scritches to both the excitable dog and the curious kitty now sniffing at his fingers. “According to their sign, they’re actually a bonded pair, and they were surrendered by their owner. Though I most certainly don’t know why~! I most certainly do not! No, no I do not!”

He had gone full-on baby talk with the _very_ overjoyed Teddy in question, and that more than sealed the deal for Haley. She slowly eased out of the room to go find a volunteer to assist them, who suggested that they take a walk with the two of them. Haley was admittedly incredulous upon finding out that yes, Jeeves _was_ in fact leash trained, and that the two of them walked remarkably well on leashes until Teddy decided it was time to investigate _all_ of the smells once they’d gone toward the back of the building. Jeeves, for his part, was content to trot alongside Haley, occasionally pausing to groom himself or rub against her legs for attention, and Haley had fully committed to the idea that they were absolutely, under no circumstances leaving this city without both of them.

“Well, we actually have another couple on the list for these two, but we’d be happy to give you a call in a few hours once we go through your respective paperwork and background checks!”

The news had been absolutely devastating to both of them, but Haley wasted absolutely no time booking a pet-friendly hotel reservation (given that they had expected to spend the night anyway), and taking her man to go try and relax at the poolside while they waited to hear back from the shelter. Elliott was understandably jittery as they changed, so she decided to take a moment to console him properly before they headed outside. She slipped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest, relieved internally when he let out a small, shaky sigh and turned around immediately to embrace her properly.

“I love them so much, Honey,” Elliott said with his voice heartbreakingly wavering with the beginnings of tears. “What if we can’t take them home? There won’t be any others like them, I am certain of it!”

“We will, Eli, we will,’ Haley murmured as she ran her fingers through the only luxurious locks to rival her own. “And do you know how I know that?”

He pulled away from her slightly, his eyes shiny against the fluorescent lighting of the hotel lamps. “H-how?”

“ _Because_ there are no other duos quite like them, and there are absolutely no other duos quite like us,” she said with full confidence. “I mean, who would have ever come to the conclusion just looking at us by ourselves that we would end up falling head-over-heels in love? Who would have thought that a sweet doggy and a calm kitty would be the best of friends to the point they can’t be separated? It’s destiny, baby!”

Though the anxiety had not fully left him, he did offer up a watery giggle and bury his face into her neck, remarking, “I…I must concede that _is_ true…”

“Of course it’s true!” Haley affirmed before kissing his head with an audible ‘pop of her lips!’ “Our fates have been intertwined from the second we met them, so we don’t even have to worry about it! It’s already all taken care of!”

Elliott leaned in and brought her into a passionate, tender kiss that left them both breathless and giggling like teenagers, and as they hugged once more and rocked against the natural rhythm of each other’s bodies, he murmured, “You really are beginning to remind me of your sister in your sage maturity.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me!” She whined despite the wide grin taking up her face. “Now, can we go down and have some fun in the water? I want to show off your muscles and kiss them so those other ladies know you’re still mine!”

She, for one, was rather proud of herself for getting ahead of the existing worry he had for swimming with his top surgery scars on display, and by the way he proclaimed ‘Onward!” and lifted her up over his shoulders amidst her wild giggling, he appreciated it, too. They were still down there when Second Chances called them back, but they certainly did not remain there long, as they had a massive celebration to attend to once that call ended.

“WE’RE FUR BABY PARENTS!” Haley squealed as Elliott scooped her up again in joy, dancing around with her as they laughed together and kissed in between.

“WE ARE!” Elliott decreed with the same enthusiasm. “WE MUST SHOP FOR THEM BEFORE WE PICK THEM UP ON ‘MORROW’S MORNING!”

And perhaps no one would have thought of the perfection that would ensue with their love story nor with the level of absolute chemistry that they would mutually have with their fur children, but as Haley rode with the three loves of her life back home the following ‘morrow’, she decided that some of the best endings imaginable were the ones that were the least anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/leave a comment/subscribe/bookmark if it so compels you! ♥ What LGBTQIA+ ships would you all like to see in the future updates of this project? ♥


	17. Support [Abby/Haley]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unconditional love and support is not universal, but it is where it matters the most.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all, possibly: Callie! You have two chapters with Haley back-to-back! What to heck! 
> 
> Me, in this hypothetical conversation: BLAME THE ADORABLE TUMBLR ART OKAY

**Day Seventeen: Parents and Supportive**

"I wanna go with Mama!" The little voice asserting behind her spooked her despite her instantly recognizing who it belonged to, and Abigail's grip on the front door handle immediately faltered as she cursed internally at herself for somehow waking up her kid. "I go with Mama today!"

"Sorry, little man," Abigail said sympathetically as she turned to the face her toddler, who was clearly still half-asleep but had still somehow managed to pull his long brown hair into a ponytail as well as a pair of mismatching shoes on each foot as he bustled toward her. "You know you're still too little to go down into the mines."

"Am _not_!" The three-year-old immediately protested, his eyes going wide at her assertion. "I'm a big boy! I go with you!"

Abigail sighed softly and closed the distance between them, taking a knee in front of one of her youngest children and gently reaching to embrace him. The boy, forever his mother's child, drew away, his frustration clouding his willingness to cuddle, and she frowned but allowed him to have his moment as she considered what to do next. She decided to appeal to his adoration for his other parent and began stepping lightly toward the master bedroom, putting a finger to her lips conspiratorially when his gaze followed her. Thankfully, he immediately forgot his grumpiness to giggle softly and mimic the motion, creeping across the floor after her and resting his head up against her leg once they reached the slightly jarred entryway.

"Mommy is still asleep," Abigail whispered. "Do you want to make sure she stays warm while I'm out? Our bed is way too big for just one person."

He hesitated, his shoulders drawing up as he squirmed slightly in place, just as unrelenting to his most passionate emotions as her (a curse that her own mother has said comes with all children.) "Wanna go with you."

"Here, I'll tell you what," Abigail said, relieved that a half-decent idea popped into her brain despite the early hour. "I'll take you down there later today after you take your afternoon power nap, but only if you will be a good boy and guard the house while I'm gone for now. Deal?"

Fully sold now, Joel gave her a toothy grin and shook her hand with his tiny one before hurrying to the end of the 'big bed' and beginning to climb the mountains of sheets. Set fully now on not waking up her other family members, Abigail crept back out as quickly as possible and exhaled in relief once she was on the porch and away from listening ears. As much as she found herself enjoying motherhood, she needed adventure just as much as a fisherman needed the sea, so these mornings of reprieve were always welcomed by the twenty-six-year-old. As per usual, she took her time walking from the riverside into town, stopping to get breakfast and coffee at The Valley’s Brew, which her wife’s sister proudly opened around the same time she began making a career out of mining and adventuring. She made sure to greet Emily before she continued up to the mines, her energy and alertness immediately returning to her as she finished her first cup and prepared for the day’s work.

* * *

As per usual when she woke up, Haley did not immediately open her eyes. She instead took a few extra moments to sense her surroundings, noting with a swell of affection in her heart that at least one of the toddlers had joined her and was now curled into her back with their tiny arm drooped over her hip. There was a suspicious clattering in the kitchen along with a hushed agreement- probably what woke her up- and the little life inside her seemed to still be asleep. Taking care not to disturb the tot still passed out beside her too much, she carefully scooted until she was able to slide out of the bed and replace her weight with a pillow, to which little Joel responded to with no indication he’d been roused in any way.

“Good morning,” she greeted the children in the kitchen with. “Are you two being nice to each other?”

“Yes, Mommy!” Came the unanimous reply from eight-year-old Katie and six-year-old Kris.

“Krissy just doesn’t know how to pour cereal right!” Katie asserted, a statement that earned her a push and a magnitude of whines from said younger brother.

“Kay, try to say that more nicely to your brother,” Haley said carefully while accepting the good-morning hug and snuggle from Kris.

“But Mommy, it’s true!” The girl exclaimed with a frown. “He wouldn’t let me fix it, either!”

“You’re his big sister, sweetheart. You need to try and be patient with him,” Haley said while offering her free arm out for her eldest daughter. “I know you’re such a good helper, and sometimes it’s hard when it feels like you’re not being listened to, but you’ll keep trying for me, right?”

Though she looked a little reluctant, the girl bobbed her head and accepted the affection. Kris pouted up to Haley once his sister went back to the counter and carried the two bowls of cereal back toward the dining room, snuggling closer to his mommy in a protective manner and whining softly.

“Use your words,” Haley encouraged.

“Milk goes ‘fore cereal,” Kris grumbled unhappily. “Kay says she’s always right cause she’s the biggest, but she’s just being a buttmunch.”

Haley bit back the grin and smoothed down his unbrushed black locks consolingly. “It’s okay to do things differently than others as long as nobody gets hurt and you don’t get hurt, sweet boy. Do you want to show Mommy how you do it?”

The boy instantly perked at her suggestion, nodding fiercely before grabbing her hand and pulling her toward their slightly messy preparation area. Though she had to internally cringe at his methods, she nevertheless praised him for his neatness and watched to make sure that he made it all the way to the table before making her own bowl and cleaning up the remains of their mess. Once she got into the dining area properly, she smiled at her other three-year-old and smoothed down the girl’s hair, savoring how the toddler immediately abandoned her eating to stand up in her chair and embrace her neck.

“Good morning, my sweet Avril,” Haley murmured affectionately into her wild brown waves.

“Mommy,” Avril replied with sleepy warmth, burrowing into her neck immediately and dozing off in her lap once she sat down.

“Mom, can I go swimming?” Katie asked as soon as she finished her food.

“You know you have to wait until I go out there too, my love.”

“But I’m a strong swimmer! I won’t get hurt!”

“Kay-Kay, I said no. How about you go get your teeth and hair brushed, and then you can go change into your swimsuit?”

The eight-year-old stomped her foot with the beginnings of a tantrum before considering the solution, shifting in place in thought in the same way her Mama always did before taking off upstairs, two steps at a time. Haley shook her head slightly, the gesture indicating love just as much as exasperation, and considered how incredible it was that Katie and Kris were so incredibly much like she and Abby despite having been adopted by them at the ages of four and two, respectively. Avril grumbled softly in protest to the extra movement, so Haley took her time eating the rest of her own meal before herding Kris into the bathroom to get ready himself. As she expected (partially from her previous home life’s lasting impacts and partially from her strong spirit), Katie did try to sneak outside while Haley was occupied, earning her a time-out in her room and a lecture from her more feminine mother that left them both irritated and Avril, who was ever the empath, in tears.

“This house ‘s _never_ boring,” Joel announced just when Haley was beginning to feel overwhelmed, having evidently woken up and parroting the line that her wife always said, and that was enough to bring back the laughter long enough for Haley to feel capable of parenting calmly again.

Once the ten minutes were over and she and Katie were able to make up, Haley was able to get everyone into bathing suits and out of the door in their appropriate pieces, which she very much considered to be a win. By the river is where her wife would eventually join them, where she thankfully brought lunch and herded their brood back inside. While the kids ate, though, Haley was able to pull Abby aside to ask about why she’d been intentionally been keeping one of her arms held to one side or the other without using it.

Indeed, there _was_ never a dull moment in their house.

* * *

“Look, I just…got a little beat up in the mines, okay?” Abby mumbled as she looked everywhere but her wife’s eyes. “Had a nasty run-in with some skeletons, that’s all.”

It was certainly not a lie, at least. The skeletons in question had totally, completely ambushed her, and she was lucky to get out of there when she did or else somebody would have probably found her passed out from pain or from having an asthma attack with all of the dust that was flying from their remains. She reluctantly held the offending arm out when Haley, being the acute partner that she was, simply gave her a Look and held out her own hand to hold it up. As she feared, her poor lover immediately gasped softly and put her free hand over her month, grimacing right along with her when she got a look at the new scars embedded into her skin.

Things were certainly tense as Haley marched her to the bathroom, shutting the door as much as she dared and pulling out the first aide kit while quietly scolding her about how she definitely had to make sure Harvey saw this and fixed her up before she even _thought_ about doing more combat. Abigail, for her part, mostly kept her gaze down and took the brunt of the lecture without complaint and argument. She figured that this day was coming, where she finally got hurt badly enough during the day that her lady would have to see the uglier side to adventuring and being the person who primarily kept the townspeople safe. Her literal job was cutting down on the populations of monster pests that had begun getting incredibly out of hand before she revealed how she’d been training to the mayor and gotten more instruction from Marlon. Her parents, as well-intentioned as they were, had completely lost their minds the few times that they saw her scars, and her father trying to force her to give up her passion was what led to her moving in with Sam and his family before she’d fallen in love with Haley. Yoba knew that she certainly wouldn’t blame her wife if she reacted similarly as her parents, but Yoba also knew that she had no idea how she would ever be able to be okay with causing the riff that would undoubtedly form if Haley were to make such an impossible demand.

“Look, this kind of thing…happens more often than I usually let on,” Abby finally admitted as Haley finished up the last of the disinfecting and bandaging. “I usually take care of it myself so you and the munchkins don’t have to worry about it. I’m genuinely fine, and I get it if you hate the idea of me doing this kind of stuff with that in mind, but…Yoba’s panties, there’s no way I’m going to stop doing it. It’s important to me that I do something I’m good at, and I know I won’t be truly happy providing for you, the kiddos, and even Pelican Town overall if I’m not pursuing this as long as I’m able. I’m…I’m sorry, baby.”

The moments of silence that stretched out between them felt like a small eternity, but then Haley did the most unusual thing. She gave her a patient smile, she finished tucking in the wrapping, and gave her a kiss on the cheek, as if all that she’d just said was something as fantastical as one of the children talking about their imaginary adventures.

“I know all of that,” Haley said calmly. “And I support you in all of that. I just don’t want you getting an infection, silly. And don’t you dare keep hiding this stuff from me because you think I’ll fuss or worry! I’m going to do that anyway, I’m your wife!”

Abby could hardly believe she was hearing her correctly. “Y…you’re not mad? You don’t want me to quit?”

“Yoba, no!” Haley exclaimed before wrapping her arms around her, her head dipping down to press against hers firmly as she spoke more softly so that listening ears could not hear. “I knew who you were as much as you did and do from the second we started dating. I am going to try and care for you just like we love and care for the children, but I won’t try to change you. I know you, and I love you.”

“I love you too, baby,” Abby said softly, her voice wobbling with tears of joy and absolute adoration as she brought her life partner into a long, passionate kiss. "And...I might have told Joel that I would take him down there after his nap, but only on the first floor where there have literally never been any monsters, and you can come too if you want." 

"I appreciate the offer, but I think me, Kris and Baby G will hang out here," Haley replied affectionately, placing her hand on her ever-growing bump and encouraging Abby to lean in and pepper it in kisses. "I hope you can handle Avril and Katie wanting to go too, then?" 

"Hey, if I can survive some of the stuff I've seen down there, I can handle our babies!" Abby asserted before giving her wife a final smooch as one of the children called out for them. "And, hey....Thank you. Your unwavering support means more than you know." 

Haley beamed in response, murmuring something about how she could certainly make her affections known after their mutual little loves of their lives were asleep, as they automatically took each other's hand and walked together for their next parenting adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	18. Stars [Sebastian/Abby]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loyalty and love are simultaneously as fickle and as constant at the very universe they exist within. Also, Maru is the best little sister, really.

**Day Eighteen: Playing an Instrument and Night Sky**

“I had a feeling that I might find you out here.”

Sebastian didn’t bother to open his eyes even as he heard Maru’s voice gradually growing louder, her feet squishing into the soft mud that led up and around the lake. His head was still aching with stress pressure even though he’d been out here for at least two hours, and he was pretty sure he was coming down with a fever, but he had absolutely no desire to return to what the started this mess in the first place. Willingly or not, his half sister was participating in the stressors that constantly nagged in his mind and were constantly wearing down his soul, but he didn’t have the energy to shoo her away now. What was the point if she would never stop persisting, anyway?

“I would ask if you’re okay, but…Well, that’d kind of be bullshit,” Maru said with a humorless chuckle. “..Do you mind if I join you?”

He did. “Do you what you want to.”

Maru sighed softly, but unlike what she usually resigned herself to doing, she made her way to his right side and tossed something on the ground before sitting on top of it. “Alright. We…don’t have to talk about it, or anything, but…I hate for you to be alone right now.”

As the two of them sat there with the only sounds coming from the nighttime creatures pulsing around them, Sebastian was forced to admit to himself that this whole mess wasn’t Maru’s fault, not really. She couldn’t control who her parents were at the end of the day nor more than he could, but she was still too much like her damned father for him to think that they could ever truly get along. Besides, this action of hers was only a manifestation of pity, something she either felt obligated to do because she thought he was pathetic, or even better, something their mother had put her up to. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that the women in his family tried to ‘break through to him’ (or whatever bullshit their counselor convinced them to do), and he was in no place to listen to it on tonight of all nights, but the guilt that always came with yelling at the younger girl and the anxiety that would ravage him inevitably afterwards was simply not worth it right now.

For once in her life, Maru seemed to take her cues from him rather than trying to come up with them on her own terms. “…I saw Abigail going out to the train tracks a little bit ago. Maybe you could bring her this.”

She patted something that she’d evidently brought out with her, a box that suspiciously looked like a picnic basket, before she got to her feet and began walking back toward the house. Before she fully stepped off the planks that led to this small island in the middle of the lake, though, she turned back toward him, and when he glanced over he could not avoid how tears shone in her eyes under the bright moonlight. Seeing that did absolutely nothing for his mood or the amounts of self-loathing that was trying to gut him alive more than usual, but Yoba, why _should_ he blame her? What _did_ he always do that? For all the occasionally insufferable faults that she had that he seemed to be the only one to ever see, the girl was trying her fucking best, and he couldn’t blame her for hating him just as much as he hated himself under these superficial gestures.

“I’m glad to have you as my brother, Sebastian. I’ll be with my telescope if you change your mind about talking or wanting company.”

Sebastian waited until his sibling was out of his line of sight fully before cursing out loud, kicking at the water harshly and pulling on his hair as he tried to find any way to express the abyss of desperation and fury that was bubbling over inside him. Once his pants were thoroughly soaked with the undoubtedly filthy lake water, he grabbed the basket that Maru had brought along with the towel she’d evidently been sitting on, stomping away from the miniature island and not stopping until he on the railroad tracks where he anticipated his girlfriend to be. At first, he couldn’t make it any distinct form that would suggest another human was there, so he decided to go ahead and light another cigarette from within his hoodie pocket, cursing loudly and without regard if anybody else truly was there when he found the damn thing too soaked from his kicking up the water to be viable.

“Sebby?”

Abigail. Sebastian turned toward where her voice had come from and found her sitting on the platform, her form mostly concealed by the shadowy containers meant to hold dropped-off boxes until she stood up and crept out closer to the edge. He wasted no time trudging over to her, grimacing at how his jeans were already beginning to chafe the insides of his thighs and his soaked soaks were making him feel as overheated with humidity. Once he got onto the top step of the stairway up to the deck, Abigail made a beeline for him, throwing her arms around him with such grandeur that he wondered if Maru had actually tried to talk to her about what had happened. Before he could consider asking, though, he felt how her chest and shoulders were shaking, and heard the small gasps of air coming from up against his neck to indicate that he was far from the only one who had been having a rough night.

“Abby…” He murmured, his heart aching as her cries seemed to grow a bit louder as she clung to him for all of her worth. “Hey…Hey, it’s okay, you can cry, but…Here, let’s go sit down over here. It’s going to be okay, I’m here. I’m here now.”

Together they embraced one another on the one of worn-down benches, his arms keeping her pressed closely to his torso as long as she clung to the front of his shirts. No train would be running at this hour, certainly, and nobody would know to look for them here unlike at the lake. As far as Sebastian was concerned, both of their families could eat shit if they were trying to ‘worry’ about them now or wanted them to come home to save their precious fucking reputations in the community. All that mattered was that somebody- probably Pierre- had made his beautiful, badass lady cry, and there was absolutely no way in Hell that he was going to allow her or himself to ever go back if it meant enduring the kind of shit that’d been putting up with for far too many years.

“S-sorry about the waterworks,” Abigail murmured as her breathing slowly returned to normal and she pulled away long enough to wipe her eyes with her sleeves. “I know you probably weren’t expecting having to come out here for me this late, but…”

“Yoba’s chest hairs, Abbes, don’t apologize for me comforting you,” Sebastian interjected with firmly and solemnly. “Hey, look at me…It is a fucking _privilege_ to be here with you right now. I want to and will love you through every part of your life, even the ones that involve ugly crying at midnight on a train platform.”

For his dry wit, he earned a giggle, and he was pretty sure that it was going to be scientifically possible for his heart to melt straight through his ribcage if she kept being so adorable. “Sebby…I want to do the same for you, you dork. You’re allowed to be pissed and hurt and whatever else when your family sucks, too.”

“So it _is_ your family,” Sebastian mused, only to be met with an amused Look from his lady. “Okay, okay, fine, but you know how I feel about talking this shit. It doesn’t do anything, and I always end up in the same fucking place, so what’s the point? I mean…I don’t mind telling you, but don’t expect me to handle it like you, gem.”

Abigail nodded slowly to herself despite the reluctance that was clearly on her face, but she nevertheless adjusted her arm around him and settled back against the bench, silently encouraging him to do the same. From where they sat now, they had an excellent view of the sky, the inky abyss stretching on for forever as millions of stars pulsed brightly behind the invisible gases up above that made them look as though they twinkled. As much as he enjoyed spending time in the rain, he had to admit that gazing up into the cosmos gave him similar feelings of being so small in the scheme of the world, and yet so aware and appreciative of the fact that there were much, much bigger things at play than his meager existence.

He wasn’t expecting the melodic notes that were now coming from beside him, so their sudden presence made him jump hard. Abigail, clearly just as startled, did the same, her eyes wide as she looked to him question and with a not yet spoken apology. Seeing her illuminated so clearly with the full move above, Sebastian realized with a strong wave of awe and affection that her gaze had the seem depth and awesome expansiveness as all of the sky above and churned feelings and knowledge more mysterious but open as the ocean below.

“…What?” She asked softly, blinking up at him as one hand slid over one of his own.

A rare genuine smile graced his lips as he laced their fingers ever-so lightly, leaning closer and pressing their foreheads together with affection. “…You’re beautiful. Please…play again for me.”

As one of her songs drifted across the otherwise emptiness of a place nearly forgotten, Sebastian finally allowed himself to think back to the cruelty he’d encountered a couple of hours prior. How Robin and Demetrius had tagged team their descending on him about he needed to contribute ‘meaningfully’ to their home if he was going to continue staying there, and how they were ‘tired’ of how he sulked around like a stranger when they had provided so much for him. His arguments may as well have spoken to the walls of his rooms as they dug deeper into their own, growing more and more personal with their lashing words until Demetrius trespassed a line that could never be returned from. The bastard had deadnamed him, and though he immediately recognized how he’d gone beyond too far, Sebastian resolved then and there that he would never, under any circumstances, forgive what he had done. He said as much before proclaiming his hatred for the two of them once and for all, and Maru had made her attempt at least an hour thereafter. Robin and Demetrius made none of their own.

“My father threatened to kick me out if I don’t get my grades up in two of my classes,” Abby finally conceded as the last notes from her tune echoed and died against the otherwise emptiness of this sanctuary. “Even though I’m passing the other three.”

“Demetrius deadnamed me,” Sebastian replied flatly, the pain wound around his voice like cutting wire. “Do you want some dinner? Maru got it for us.”

And though they left their spoken agonies exist between them in favor of eating and talking about literally anything else, Sebastian decided that it was high time for the two of them to truly move on with their lives. He suggested as much to Abby once they were full and re-hydrated from their tears that inevitably had fallen, bringing up that the old farmland was overgrown with potential in fishing and, well, farming, and that Lewis was going to finally put it up on the market in the coming days. He had been saving up for years to move to the city, which they agreed with another valid option, and that she had been doing the same with her odd jobs and scholarship money that overran from her otherwise academic success and limited parental income. In the end, they decided they were going to ride his motorcycle to a hotel for a night or two, to get their affairs in order in the morning when their relatives were out of the way, but Sebastian had something else to take care of for now, and Abby was thankfully happy to come along for that, too.

“Hey, Maru,” he said as he and his life partner made it to where she was observing the same stars in the same way they had been. “Room for two more?”

“…Of course. Always, big brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	19. Commendable [Farmer/Leah/Elliott]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a day of completing the usual tasks of each other, a trio in love find themselves able to praise what has been done while they have been apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely love this ship, which was spawned by my save file wherein my farmer marries Elliot but is also certainly in adoration to Leah because all of them are too good for this world, truly.

**Day Nineteen: Bisexual Flag and Impressing One Another**

As much as she adored both of her spouses, December had been admittedly hesitant to leave them alone with her farming and caretaking chores for the day. It certainly was not as though she didn’t believe in their ability to not burn the farmhouse down or to do their best with the list she’d left them. It was much more so that she knew how feisty and mischievous her siblings could be, she knew how cranky and spirited her animals could be, and she most definitely knew how overwhelming it could be to make sure that every plant and crop was watered the appropriate amount, so she had admittedly not been expecting anything close to perfection (especially when she herself very rarely achieved it, and she did these things daily!)

“Knock, knock,” she called out softly as she entered into the living room at around ten thirty at night, her own body aching with exhaustion from all of the errands she’d handled herself but alertness still high with the anticipation of seeing her family again as well as showing off her achievements. “Is anybody still awake in here?”

“Ah, my fresh and fragrant little fairy rose! My darling companion!” Elliott exclaimed as loudly as he dared, looking up from where he’d evidently been reading by the fireside and setting his leather-bound book on the coffee table at once. “Leah, my dearest ray of sunlight, our December and Connie hath finally returned to us!”

“Hath, huh?” December teased affectionately as she gently pet the sleeping feline against her shoulder. “Miss Connie did perfect, the vet said. She’ll be back to her old self soon after the anesthesia wears off and her stitching comes out next week.”

“That is fantastic news!” Elliott said warmly as he reached the two of them, leaning in immediately to give her a welcome home kiss before scratching behind their sweet fur baby’s ears. “Such a brave girl~”

“Ah, it’s official! Our sweet girl can adventure to her heart’s delight and not have to worry about being a mother again!” Leah said with a grin from the entryway to the master bedroom. “And even better, our wifey is home!”

December muffled her laughter to avoid waking up the children, but she wasted no time going to smooch her lady and laying down the still sleeping Connie in her cat bed, internally noting that this would be one of the exceedingly rare incidents that she would be happy to sleep there rather than in their bed as per usual. Elliott walked up behind her as she straightened up from kneeling over and slid his arms around her, a gesture that she welcomed with another giggle as she leaned her head back into his affection. Leah wasted no time padding over herself and closing the ‘spouse sandwich’ that they so often made with each other (with alternating who was in the middle, of course), her head resting up against December’s shoulder and arms lacing lightly with Elliott’s as they simply enjoyed the feeling of each other’s touch for a several long moments.

“How did things go today?” December finally murmured, closing her eyes as she mentally prepared herself for what they may say.

“Oh, I’d say they went quite well! Wouldn’t you, darling?” Elliott hummed contentedly, causing Leah to nod against her and hum in contentment. “I must say, I had no idea that your arrangements in plants would make so much sense as to the amounts of the water they need! I never realized before now that their proximity to the nearest water sources was planned so keenly by you, but I must say, bravo!”

“And the hives and tappers were full today,” Leah added. “I made sure to keep one of each set out in case you need them for something, and we set the rest in the shipping bin for Lewis. I went ahead and did similar things with pulling the ripened crops, though I set two of each out because there were so many of them.”

“You two are keen yourself, thank you!” December already felt warm all over from their praise and how they’d so proudly achieved so much, but there was evidently more, and that only made her affections grow the more her pride in them inflated rapidly.

“I’m afraid we did not feel quite comfortable trying to sheer the sheep, but we collected the eggs and milk without much incident,” Elliott reported as he began to absent-mindedly play with December’s lavender locks. “The kittens remain in excellent health and as rambunctious as ever. Our horses are also as nippy as ever, but I think I am at least making progress with little Elfie! She actually allowed me to feed her an apple directly from my palm today!”

“I told you that she’d love you,” December noted, fluttering her eyes open and giving him a knowing wink. “As long as you bond with them when they’re foals, you’ll usually get a companion for life.”

“We only had a couple of little incidents with the kiddos today; nothing major or serious,” Leah chimed in thoughtfully as she snuggled closer to her partners. “Mary was having a hard time sharing her crayons with Hartley, but we got it all smoothed out, and Hartley had a little fit when he couldn’t go play with Vincent after dinner, but they listened to us for the most part. And Malachi made a new friend at school today! We’re very proud of them.”

“We certainly are!” Elliott and December said simultaneously, an action that made them all giggle and readjust their holds on each other.

“I am incredibly proud of all of you. We’re all in all of this together, but you two really made the dream work today all by yourselves,” December said, the warmth practically emitting from her skin and glowing from her words. “My little siblings and I are so incredibly beyond privileged to have you both in our family. I love you, I love you, so very, very much.”

Naturally, Leah and Elliot repeated the last sentence, as it was the phrase that they mutually used as their special way of affirming their mutual adoration with each other. Leah thereafter inquired about how December’s errands went today while their sweet cat was getting spayed, leading the Pelican Town farmer to be able to lead her husband and wife outside to take in the Spirits’ Eve decorations she’d both bought and set up before fetching Connie from the still-running car and coming inside. The front windows were adorned with bat and skeleton shaped fairy lights along their edges, three massive pumpkins were set up to be carved the following day along with three other ones of varying sizes (in correspondence to their charges’/siblings’ ages), and several ghost-shaped glow-in-the-dark stickers were now adorning the outside walls. Finally, stakes with plastic ‘blood’ were stuck along the sides of their usual cobblestone walkway, and three fully-functioning bat boxes had been driven up near the house to promote the conversation of the ecosystems’ friends.

“You call our achievements impressive, this is absolutely incredible!” Elliott exclaimed fully now that they were not inside with sleeping children. “You’ve done a marvelous job, Deci, thank you!”

“And you even left enough for the rest of us to be able to help without worry!” Leah agreed with a beaming smile. “Yes, thank you, Deci!”

The two of them smooshed their lips on either side of her face now, leading the farmer to giggle like a school girl herself and bring her arms around the two of them as they took in the beauty of their farm, their spouses, and the joy of their lives overall together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	20. A Day [Shane/Sebastian]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two souls more alike than they are apart still have times where they have differing needs.

**Day Twenty: Candy and Sticks and Stones**

If there was anything that Shane could comprehend without any explanation, it was the inability that someone could have to get out of bed. He had been through it too many damn times himself- countless, really- so when he woke up feeling mostly rested and his partner only grunted in response to his trying to start a conversation or suggest they go out for breakfast, he knew what had to be done, at least in some areas.

He started the day by going into Sebastian’s ‘Nerd Cove’ and using his account to message the clientele that Sebastian always wrote out on physical paper to keep up with to let them know that his husband was under the weather and would resume their projects the next day. He decided to go ahead and shower after that, even taking the time to shave away the shadowy beginnings of a beard that insisted on trying to grow, before he began on breakfast. Since his family had made it abundantly clear that they did not, in fact, want to consume microwavable pizzas or pasta at any time of day, he began to heat up the pre-made breakfast scrambles for each of them while setting the coffee maker to brew. For his kid, he poured a tall glass of milk and stirred in both the chocolate powder that could be bought for such a concoction as well as chocolate syrup (for bonus flavor, obviously.)

“Morning, Dad,” Jas greeted as she finished climbing down the stairs, already fully ready because even at twelve, the girl was more on her game than her two fathers combined (and she definitely knew it.) “Look at you making breakfast! What’s the special occasion?”

“Ha ha, you’re very funny,” Shane replied sarcastically with no real heat behind his words. “Seb isn’t feeling great today. I think he’s having A Day.”

“Poor Pops,” Jas said sympathetically as she slid into her usual chair at the table, which was small enough to fit in their homely kitchen. “You think he’ll be…okay?”

“Aw, there’s no doubt about it, munchkin,” Shane assured at once, gently ruffling up her hair from behind while handing her the milk with the other. “I’m sure he’ll be back to his usual grumpy but sweet self by tomorrow. You know these things just happen sometimes, yeah?”

“I do,” Jas confirmed, pressing a quick peck to his cheek and accepting her drink and her food shortly after. “Thank you, this is looks really good!”

“I can try and make omelets tomorrow,” Shane said with a small smile while he sat down with his own breakfast. “We have enough regular eggs, and I don’t want that cheese to go to waste in there.”

“I can help!” Jas suggested, which he readily agreed to. She was more capable behind a stove behind him despite her age, and besides, he loved to spend time with her.

Once they both ate, Shane went ahead and took her to school before deciding to pick up the few things that had been on their grocery list for about three days now. He brought home some Burrito Chime for lunch- Sebastian’s favorite fast food- and was not surprised to find that the breakfast he’d left for his husband had not been touched, but it still made him grimace. He wordlessly cleaned it up and went about his usual daily business after setting out some fresh water and his portion of lunch, feeding the chickens, stopping by to see what Marnie might need on the ranch, and so on. It was on busy days- good days- that he found it particularly funny that he’d once thought that he would have gaping holes where Joja Co. used to occupy most of his coherent hours. When he finally returned back to the house, it was nearly time for Jas to come home- wait, no, they still had another hour because she would have her trivia-answering-team thing today- so he checked on Sebastian again.

Unsurprisingly, he was still right where he’d left him. Shane quietly cleaned up the untouched lunch and was on his way back toward the kitchen when the motionless bundle on their bed stirred ever-so slightly.

“Shane.”

A single word, croaked out by a voice unused all day. Shane tossed the wrapped food onto the dresser and walked over, trying not to look and feel quite so much like he was approaching a wild animal rather than his lover. He was hoping for further instruction, at least a motion to indicate what Sebastian needed, but he got none, so he decided to do the opposite of what he would expect from someone else. He didn’t say anything either, simply slid back into the bed and pulled his arms around his smaller lover. Sebastian didn’t respond for a few long moments, but then he rolled over, too, his face pressing into his neck and arms resting on either side of his torso, and he figured he made the right call after all.

“We don’t have to talk about it. I just…want you to know I’m here for you, baby,” Shane murmured. “I’ve got to pick up Jas in an hour, but I’ll be right back here after.”

Silence. Shane remained there for as long as he could without letting their sweet girl down by being late, and as promised, he slid right back into place with his partner doing the same as soon as he returned home with her. Together they stayed almost perfectly still, their silence a comfortable familiarity rather than something most would find crushing. Upstairs, Jas played her music for a while, shuffled around, then quieted it for around forty minutes. When it turned back on, Shane knew that she’d undoubtedly finished her homework, and she’d be hungry soon.

“Do you want dinner?” He asked despite how he figured that he already knew the answer.

“…I’m so fucking tired of knowing more about myself than anybody else.”

Huh. He definitely hadn’t seen any response coming, much less something like that. “What do you mean, babe?”

“I know I’m just a shitty of a ‘father’ as fucking Demetrius,” Sebastian said with a humorless scoff, his words muffled by their proximity to each other but message loud and clear. “The only chance I would have had at being decent was if my old man didn’t kick the bucket, but he’s been gone for years, so why would I ever bring him up, right? Whatever. Jas deserves better, and you two won’t acknowledge it because you both love me, but she does, and so does whatever other poor kid gets stuck with me being their ‘Pops’. At least they’ll have you and her to soften the edges.”

“…Our getting approved to adopt spawned this,” Shane said softly, trying not to express the crushing disappointment he felt.

Sebastian wasn’t ready. He didn’t blame him; he hadn’t been for the first six years of their marriage, even to the point they hadn’t bothered talking about. He knew he couldn’t demand that his lover be prepared at the exact same time he felt he was, and he had tried so hard to make it clear that it was okay with waiting however long that Sebastian needed to, but here they were anyway and why did he fuck everything good in his life up and-

“N-no. I mean…It has me thinking about it, I guess, but the fact my ‘stepfather’ is the worst is the real problem,” Sebastian grumbled with a sigh. “Robin is never going to stop hounding me about thinking anything other than the truth.”

Thank whatever forces there were that his husband was better at finding the roots of issues than he ever had been. “I still say you cut her off. Neither of them have been anything but toxic to you, especially not since you moved out. How much worse does it have to get before you realize you haven’t deserved any of it?”

“Doesn’t change my shitty fatherhood. I can’t even get my ass up to ask her about her day today.”

“Sebby…Listen.” Shane scooted up in bed, pulling up his groaning love and staring him in the eyes, knowing full well he was going full on ‘Marnie’ but not bothering to fight it to prove a point. “Maybe Jas doesn’t have perfect fathers. You and I are both fucked up in our own ways. We’ve got baggage, and we’re both making it up as we go. But Jas also has a couple of messy son-of-bitches that love her unconditionally, and love each other unconditionally, and that’s gotta be enough to get us, and any and all future children we bring into our own messy version of life, through relatively alright. Alright?”

Sebastian didn’t respond for a long time. He remained in his arms, staring blankly into his eyes, seeming to be searching for something that Shane was terrified already that he couldn’t provide. Just when he was ready to break, though, just when he was going to apologize for making it worse, his Sebby brought a hand up against his face tenderly and gave him the faintest beginnings of a quarter-smile.

“…Alright.”

And though the depression was far from cured, and all conversations could not possibly have solutions that made sense, Shane was able to get Sebastian and Jas in the same room with enough attentiveness from both to get in their daily cuddles, he was able to feed them both strawberry candy from the sweet shoppe that was hidden in the neighborhood just beyond Jas’s school, and things were on the track for the new day to be just alright- if not more- than this one had been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	21. Colors [Alex/Farmer]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just because something is not permanent physically does not mean the significance is any lesser.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warmest of shoutouts to the SDV Discord server I recently joyed, in which one lovely, lovely user (who I am not sure wants to be named but has been informed of this chapter) inspired our dear Farmer character for today, and in which all the members are Wholesome and Too Good for This World, not to mention all wickedly brilliant, unique, and funny. I am a very happy roleplayer to have the privileged of interacting with them!

**Day Twenty-One: At the Beach and Sunset**

“Are you cold?” Milano asks. Seconds later, he’s shrugged off his coat and tossed it around Alex’s shoulders with surprising accuracy. “Fucking nerd, you didn’t even bring your own coat.”

“Dickbag,” Alex retorts affectionately. “Now stop dragging your feet, I don’t want to miss it!”

“It’s too far to walk!” Milano bemoans overdramatically, leaning as though he were faint against the railing of the bridge that led down to the main beach. “I can’t go on! Prosper without meeeeee~”

“Okay, that’s it!” Alex declares.

The next thing his partner knows, he is upside down over Alex’s shoulder, sputtering and squirming but laughing just as much as Alex treks on into the sand with a massive grin on his own face. Alex makes the judgement to not set down his lover until they’ve actually arrived onto the second, more secluded beach, which turns out to be have been wise, given how Milano immediately lets out a battle cry and charges toward him with his arms extended. The two collide at once, rolling and laughing in the sand, each of them trying to out-noogie the other while launching frantic tickle attacks and wrestling moves alike to try and overtake the other. Milano manages to get the upper hand after accosting his tickles across Alex’s belly, the cheater, and the shorter individual prompts sits on Alex’s middle to bask in his glorious victory.

“Poor Alec is losing his touch,” Milano teases with the nickname that only he exclusively is allowed to use.

“You got lucky!” Alex retorts with a playful eye roll. “Now, can you please get your butt off of me so we can enjoy some nice time on our date without you bullying me?”

“Me, a bully? Never!” Milano protests with no heat behind his words, rolling off of Alex all the while and grabbing their folded-up picnic blanket from their picnic basket.

The two of them work in a tandem full of more affectionate teasing and physical affections to set up their ‘base’ as well as to use another massive towel to cover each other for modesty as they change into their bathing suits. As soon as they are finished with that, of course, Alex throws his boyfriend back over his shoulder and charges right for the open ocean, whooping in his own brief giggles as Milano’s squeals and laughing protests are interrupted by his plunging into the water with him in tow. A splash war naturally ensues, and by the time the two of them had gotten each other back about fifteen times respectively, it is nearly time for the very ‘event’ that brought them out here in the first place. In a more traditional couple-ly gesture, the two of them hold hands as they wade back to shore and dry off before beginning to serve each other their portions of their picnic. Said small feast includes, of course, hamburgers and hot dogs that Alex had grilled beforehand, several bags of multi-variety chips, a six-pack of soda and electrolyte replenishing drinks, about half a pound of Granny’s cookies, several fruits, and boiled eggs, all of which the two dig into as though the world was ending in less than fifteen minutes.

“The view out here really is incredibly,” Alex comments as they mutually bask in the kind of contentment only brought on by having a pleasantly full stomach. “It’s the best view in the Valley.”

“I ought to be considering all of the trouble we went through to get here,” Milano jests before growing more sincere. “But in all seriousness, I’m really glad I’ve been able to spend some quality time with you. I know this place means a lot to you, too, so that’s even more special.”

“I feel the same way,” Alex says with a soft and genuine smile gracing his lips in replacement of his usual smirk. “My Mama and I used to come out here every time we visited Granny and Papaw. It was nice to just have the two of us here, far away from that bastard who helped create me and giving my grandparents a peaceful house after dinner…I know she would want me to share it with you now, too.”

Milano, with tears of affection gleaming in his eyes, slips his fingers through and around Alex’s now, who kisses their touching hands in return and snuggles closer to him as the night grows a bit colder still. The sky, in the day’s final performance, grows vibrant with what seems to be at least a million colors. Tonight the most prominent color is a golden kind of yellow, which is broken by deep pools of orange and purple-blues that streak across like they were left by a stone skipping across a lake. There is not a cloud in the sky, and the darkness along the edges that ever-so gradually wipes nature’s canvas for the endless stars above accentuates this glorious temporariness of such a view.

“That really was something,” Milano says softly once the stars become more prominent than the remainders of the colors. “Thank you for giving me that. I’ll remember this for years, I can just feel it.”

“Well, let’s up you can keep up the pace, because this has been the first of many, many, many more to come,” Alex says before pressing a tender kiss to his man’s temple. “Ready to head back for now?”

Milano is silent for a moment, then,” If you can beat me there, Alec!!”

Their mutual laughter echoes across this area of so much significance, melancholy, and delight, as they tear after each other, two shining beacons of color and warmth that mix just as well and for far longer than the beauty of the sunsets they both cherish so greatly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥ What ships would you like to see next in this collection?


	22. Aligned (Maru/Penny)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is possible for one false distribution to make an equation nonsense, so Maru is determined to be as precise as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout again to the beyond-incredible SDV roleplay server I’m in, they are all the Literal Best!

** Day Twenty-Two: Ice Cream and Self-Discovery  **

Maru lived for this kind of weather; hot but not humid, breezy but not nippy. They fully take advantage of days as such, trading their usual overall and sturdy shirt combination for something much more seasonal. They could not help but to feel particularly cool, cute, and confident in this unique outfit. They wore deeply-shaded tan skirt, which reached down to just above their knees and was held up by two straps that rested on each of their shoulders. Their shirt was cream-colored- they never wore completely white clothing, it stained far too easily- and had a single uncolored pear in center, which took up just the right amount of space that it was positioned in between their straps. Their socks went up their calves in their silky black fabric, and they found that their flats clicked ever-so lightly on the cobblestone as they approached ‘their’ bench that they shared every day with somebody very special to them.

“Maru!” Penny greeted them with her usual bright enthusiasm, her lips puckering immediately for the kiss that they always provided before they sat beside their girlfriend. “Yoba’s graces, you look absolutely stunning! Of course, you always are, but this outfit is everything!!”

Maru knew that their lady of nearly a full year and a half was forever full of this kind of radiant sincerity, and yet it has never failed to make them a pliant mess of soft joy. “My sweet princess, you are the irradiate and gorgeous one, but you’ve still made me a very happy partner with your praise.”

Penny gave them a wink, the mirth sparkling in her doe-brown eyes, before she settled back into the bench’s sturdiness. “My, what a fine day this is to be outside!”

“I concur,” Maru mused. “If I could only quantify the components that go into this kind of weather, I could potentially find a means to harvest it for perfect seasonal control!”

“If anybody can figure something incredible like that out, it will be you,” Penny said with unwavering confidence, her head finding its’ place on Maru’s nearest shoulder. “I don’t know, though...I have to admit I do love the changing of the seasons, and rainy nights in, and the crispness of a nippy fall afternoon.”

“There are certainly benefit’s to nature’s inherent design,” Maru conceded while absently stroking their beloved’s hair.

Before the conversation had a chance to progress further, Jas and Vincent galloped past, both holding an ice cream that looked nearly too large for their bodies. Penny giggled softly beside them, and Maru thought instantly of how their most prioritized objectives were to find ways to make her this happy, this content, every single day. Certainly they would marry, and have a family of their own, but those goalswere slightly more long-term. They already had the means to make this exceptionally-temperatured day unforgettable- it was practically burning a hole in their pocket- but they could not help but to want to find another ‘piece de resistance’ to seal this as a truly remarkable day in history. The solution had just passed before them, they realized with a broad smile of their own.

“Hey, do you want some ice cream?” Maru asked sweetly. 

Penny, forever their little sweet-toothed fairy, perked immediately. “O-oh, that sounds perfect!”

As they began walking toward the ice cream stand, Maru considered whether or not to give the particularly special news before or after their edible treat. Before would make ice cream an extra special means to celebrate, but they’d already decided on having it separately from the news, so perhaps that would not work properly. Telling Penny after would possibly make the ice cream less special, though, a forgotten afterthought or possibly a nuisance. Giving this announcement, it would appear, was going to be a delicate balancing act of all of the variables for, where one wrong move would make the whole equation a jumbled mess.

“What kind would you like, dear?” Penny asked, her voice immediately bringing them back out of their thoughts.

Maru gets one scoop of vanilla, one of chocolate, and one of strawberry to have, objectively, the perfect balance of a trio. Penny gets the same but with sprinkles, and they decide to share a big glass of milk to wash it down. As they begin walking back to their bench to enjoy their snacks, Maru began cementing their configured way to make their announcement to their most adored.

“So I have something exciting to say~” Penny mused as they approached their spot.

Well, that certainly threw a bit of a wrench into their own plans. “What’s that, my love?”

“In regards to my sexuality, I think I have decided to identify exclusively as pansexual,” Penny said with a shy but expectant grin to them. “I know I’ve thought I was a lesbian for a while now, but Maru, your incredible ability to be all, as well as none of, as well as everything in between with gender has never once changed my view of you. You are absolutely the person I am going to marry and have a life forever with, so perhaps it is simply a manifestation of my complete devotion to you, but I think I’m ready to embrace that label for myself as well as for us.”

Maru did not try to suppress their beam, and they wasted no time bringing their Penny closer to them to pepper her most liberally with kisses. Penny’s giggles drifted through the air, mixing with Maru’s mumbled affectionate croons into her darling’s skin, and Maru became fully certain that the universe has aligned perfectly for this one period of time for more than one reason. 

“I propose a toast,” they said, lifting their cone up as though it were a glass. 

“Alright!” Penny chirped, mimicking the motion. “To what, my dear?”

“To your self discovery...” Maru begins, lets the suspension linger for a couple of moments longer, and then continues. “...And to how I got the deed to the old farmhouse this morning.”

Penny’s eyes go wide, and then Maru is the one being partially smothered in kisses as they both laugh and cheer and hold each other tightly. The one and only imperfection of the day comes in the form of their frozen goods melting onto their fingers thanks to their celebrations lasting several minutes, but truly Maru did not even consider minding at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ❤️


	23. To You [Shane/Emily/Abby]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is not always easy to accept the love that one deserves and has earned, but that does not mean they will not continue to try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: I do know that polysexual and polyamory are not necessarily the same thing, but I do not personally headcannon/see any of the Stardew marriage candidates wanting to do one without the other. It felt important to me to make that clear just in case! :)

**Day Twenty-Three: Polysexual and Won’t Let Go**

When Shane woke up, he found that his bed was- for the first time in years- was not cold. He slowly stretched out his arms, shoulders, and back, rotating his head to one side, and his breath caught immediately caught as he reminded in a rush of all that had taken place over the past two weeks, and especially of what had happened in the past twenty-four hours.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Emily, forever the natural morning-person amongst their trio, greeted with a soft smile. “I wanted to make brunch, but I thought it would be better to wait until you were both awake before I got started. Nothing is worse than cold food.”

Shane hoped his breath wasn’t too bad. Just in case, he made sure to not speak until he’d sat up, rubbing at each eye but being sure not to ever avert his gaze fully from Emily. “I thought you hated microwaved food more, though. _Especially_ if it isn’t made specifically for a microwave.”

“Well, I suppose you have a valid point,” Emily conceded with her smile widening into a grin.

“Did somebody mention food?” Abigail grunted as she rolled over against Shane’s other side, her deeply dyed locks in wild waves down her face and across her pillow. “I like food.”

“I’m about to make a small buffet for us,” Emily assured. “I was just waiting for you two to naturally finish sleeping. It’s terribly unhealthy to force anyone’s body of its’ natural sleeping patterns, and even more so it would just be rude for me to do that to my wife and husband.”

Shane was unable to prevent a wide grin from spreading across his face as that reality was affirmed aloud. All of what he knew was genuine, and that alone made him want to do things that would be wildly uncharacteristic of himself, like dance around the room or crank the radio up and sing in all of his off-key glory at the top of his lungs. He supposed that was what he got for having fallen in love with two incredibly vibrant, shameless women, both of which somehow felt exactly the same way about him and even _married him_ less than twenty-four hours prior to now. He used the sheer joy that came from those facts to motivate him out of their bed and into the bathroom, where he showered and brushed his teeth until he was certain he could kiss and touch them without accidently affronting them with sour odor. As he stepped out of the bathroom connected to the master bedroom, he found Abigail sitting on the edge of their bed, her hair- currently colored half-purple and half-blue so that she could match both of her partners’ on their wedding day- having been put up into two high buns and her fancy nightclothes revealing all of that features of her that he’d gotten so intimate with the night before.

“What are you staring at?” Abigail asked with a laugh, then added teasingly, “You like what you see?”

“Of course I do!” Shane said with a slightly disbelieving laugh. “You and Em both having sexiness beyond what any words could ever describe! Yoba, at least if I were a poet I’d be able to try…You’re gorgeous, Abbs. So damn gorgeous.”

His open display of sweetness clearly resonated with her, and he found himself being rewarded in the form of his face being peppered with kisses. Though he grunted and groaned and swept her off her feet to carry her into the kitchen, he did not truly find her affection disagreeable, and would even privately admit to himself that he completely loved it.

“I hope you two really are hungry!” Emily announced as they entered the kitchen, which was full of a variety of strong smells that immediately opened the sinuses.

“Always!” Abigail replied with a laugh, hopping down from where she’d been laid over Shane’s shoulder in favor of boosting herself onto the nearby kitchen island. “Kiss?”

Emily conceded immediately, the two of them bringing their lips together with such tenderness and delight that Shane felt as though he may positively melt on the spot. He went ahead and set disposable plates and real cutlery out behind where Abby was sitting and were the counter-height chairs were pushed in, then decided to properly kiss his spouses good morning. When Emily turned toward him, possibly to request he hand her something, he wrapped his arms around her and dipped her backwards into a kiss that he figured must look cooler than it actually felt, as his knees immediately wobbled in protest and his arms felt stretched in the wrong direction, but the way Emily looked at him with starstruck delight when they finally separated their lips was enough to convince him that he should still do things like that as often as possible. He then put both of his hands on Abby’s back, sliding them down progressively lower as she used her legs to scoot against his torso and kissed him with enough heat to potentially ignite a campfire.

Unlike what he was certain most of the gossip-eager townies thought, the two of them had not simply taken pity on him and brought him into some pre-existing relationship of theirs in order to ‘fix him’, and for that Shane was relieved, because otherwise all of this would definitely be far too coincidental and cookie-cutter, daytime-movie to be genuine. This had begun with Abigail breaking up with her asshole of an ex, who had been from Zuzu City and had strung her along for nearly two years. If there was anything someone like him knew about it, it was hitting rock fucking bottom, and that is what he knew Abigail had hit when she was spending nearly as much time at the saloon as he and Pam did. He wasn’t initially sure why he confronted her about it, but one breakdown full of tears and difficult-to-answer questions later, he and Abby began to seek comfort in each other rather than so exclusively on the ‘sauce.’ Emily, having witnessed all of this, became a sort of life coach in her own right without prying too hard, and gradually all their lives had become so intertwined that Shane could not shake the concept of being more than just friends with both of these two ladies that he was so mutually enamored with. Truthfully, he’d expected them to laugh in his face when he brought up the idea, or maybe for them to discover they were perfect to date and marry each other without him, but they’d agreed, and now two years later they were in their own home and making brunch on the day after their wedding.

“We’ve come a long way,” Shane said aloud as he mused on it all while they each got their own portions of the cooked food (and thanked Emily with compliments and kisses, naturally.) “It’s been nearly five years since we all _really_ met and started getting to know each other…Man, I just can’t help but to feel like if I ever slip up, I’m going to lose both of you forever. It still feels too good to be true, even if I trust you when you both say is…Jeez, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to kill the mood-”

“No, I understand what you mean,” Abby interjected, not unkindly. “We’re all really living the dream, aren’t we? A house, beautiful partners, a bright future…It’s easy to feel like it’s all temporary, even if we know it’s not.”

“Each of us have our fates irreparably intertwined, but I could have never predicted the way that they have. It was fate that brought us together, and yet even the truest things can feel distrustful when they are so transparent,” Emily philosophized. “I know that I can and do trust you both, and that you both can and do trust me fully, but it is still difficult sometimes.”

“We are all conditioned to think we don’t deserve it,” Abby mused.

“And our minds like to be total dickheads,” Shane agreed, and even though it was profoundly less lyrical than how the two of them put it, he was not truly embarrassed as they all began to giggle, then outright laugh, in harmless mirth as that fact was acknowledged. “Oh, well…I tried. But anyway…I’m holding on tightly to both of you for the rest of our lives. I know I can’t control the future and all, but…Well, I know that this- _we_ together- are…Well, forever.”

“Hear here!” Abigail chimed in with a beaming smile of her own. “And I’m holding on tight to you two, too!”

Emily slid each of her hands over one of theirs each, her eyes sparkling with the same love they all felt. “So very true. I’m holding on tight to both of you.” 

Perhaps brunch would get a bit cold this way after all, but neither Shane nor either of them relinquished each other’s physical touch for a few minutes longer, anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	24. Rainbows [Elliott/Shane]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Overthinking can potentially tarnish a day otherwise of bright celebration. Thankfully, Elliott's husband knows him well enough to assist with not allowing that to happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout-out again to my beyond-incredible SDV Discord Server children/bbs, who inspired me to write my very first piece of Shelliot post introducing me to this phenomenal ship! ♥ While it not be my personal all-time OTP for this game, it /is/ a mutual Big Favorite within the group, so I hope you all enjoy it, and that it was well worth the wait! :)

**Day Twenty-Four: OTP and Parade**

“You know, this kind of thing really isn’t my scene,” Shane commented as he sat on the edge of the bathtub, watching Elliott get ready. “But I love seeing you happy, so I’m happy, too.”

“I really do think you’re going to love this,” Elliott assured as he finished braiding the remainder of the fake flowers and fairy lights into his hair, which is so lengthy now that reaches just past his ribcage when it is free. “And we certainly do not have to participate it anything that would at all make you feel discomfort in any way. Additionally, we can take as many rests as you desire, and-”

“El,” Shane interrupted with no venom. “I’m beginning to think that you might need to be the one to relax.”

“Well, this is a far reach from being my personal first Pride event, but it most assuredly _is_ yours!” Elliott exclaimed while turning round to clasp his hands over Shane’s anxiously. “I desperately want for this to go well, and for you to be able to fall in love with celebrating your identity as mutually as I have fallen helpless to doing so myself…But of course this love affair does not hold a candle to my enamored affections and absolute, pure devotion that I have toward you! As you said yourself, as long as you are made content, I too-”

“ _Elliott_ ,” Shane interjected over him once more with a small chuckle, placing both of his calloused hands on either side of Elliott’s face with seeming attentiveness to not mess up his makeup. “Seriously, don’t be so in your head about it. I’m just happy to be able to spend the day with you uninterrupted.”

Elliott’s face and heart were both immensely warmed by such a sweet sentiment from his husband, who was so often more prone to show his love by doing or touching rather than spoken word, and he immediately brought him into a tender but lengthy kiss. Now really was a historical day in Pelican Town, and one that Elliott, Leah, Maru, and Penny had all been planning for well over a year. This day was host to the first festival within this once run-down little town specifically themed toward Pride Month, and though it had not taken much convincing at all to get Mayor Robin on board with the concept, there was a silent expectation that if it went badly for some reason, it may not become a regular tradition. The thought alone made Elliot’s chest ache so painfully that he had to mentally dismiss the possibility constantly in order to try and keep face as well to be able to genuinely enjoy the day.

“Are we ready to go??” Their sweet girl, their Jas, poked her head into the bathroom now and looked at the two expectantly. “I’m so excited!!”

“We are too, darling!” Elliott assured while scooping the eight-year-old up into his arms, kissing the top of her head and marveling to himself that the trio of them had been a family for nearly two full years now. “I am just finishing up now, and we’ll head out, alright?”

Though she pouted a little, Jas nodded her ascent, and was rewarded by Shane standing up himself and extending his arms to hold her while saying, “Hey, how about you come outside with me? We can find some more pretty flowers to put in your hair if you want.”

Jas’s eyes immediately widened, and she giggled in a way that she always did when she was delighted or mischievous as she hugged her Dad’s neck. Elliott naturally chalked it up to her being eager to go to a celebration and finished up the last touches of his rainbow-filled makeup, giving himself a last, nervous smile in the mirror before going to join his husband and his first child.

“Not to concern anyone, but I think a rainbow might have fallen out of the sky and landed directly on our town square,” Shane joked as he walked back his side from their ranch toward the festival site.

“Do you think we did a bit too much setting up?” Elliott inquired once he finished chuckling at his spouse’s humorous observation. “I know that historically the events are outdated and barren with their décor, but I know that the town council has been changing that in the past few events, so I thought it would wise to display our own commitment as well as to give example as to how vibrant Pelican Town really can be.”

Shane, though he did not interrupt him, did cease walking temporarily, causing Elliott to naturally do the same. Before the other man had a chance to inquire what the issue was, Shane wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a tight embrace, his hand gently rubbing at his back and causing him to both relax against him and shiver at the tingling pleasure on his spine.

“You all did an amazing job,” Shane said softly. “And no matter what highs or lows happen to today, I’m _so fucking proud_ of you all, and especially of you. I promise it’s all going to be okay.”

Elliott felt his eyes grow damp immediately, and he deepened his embrace with his most beloved as he buried his face into the side of Shane’s neck. “T-thank you. Th-thank you so m-much, darling.”

Once they fully reached the festival, it turned out that there was not, in fact, much time to do any real overthinking. Love songs, particularly ones with same-sex themes or by artists who themselves were LGBTQIA+, were playing throughout the plaza, which was practically brimming with people dressed as vibrantly as the rainbow decorations. Zuzu _did_ host a couple of Pride events themselves every year, but most of it was corporate and fabricated to fish in customers, so this particular celebration being authentic and the closest one to several surrounding towns had apparently been big news to spread. Elliott was delighted by this prospect, as were Leah, Maru, and Penny, and the quad of them had been receiving praise and compliments all day for organizing this whole thing as they made their way to the various activities occurring within it.

The community center had been set up into different seminar areas in order for children and adults alike to be more educated about LGBTQIA+ history, and, for the adults, the petitions and issues occurring within their community that every one of them could choose to help within. Several food trucks were set up near the fountain- all of which were from companies that genuinely supported LGBTQIA+ communities and people- along with several picnic benches. A bouncy house was set up with an optional donation jar to help make this festival occur annually and improve as well was set up by it. Several booths were set up off to the side in front of Harvey’s clinics for the children, like flag coloring sheets and face painting, and LGBTQIA+ independent artists all lined the walkways in their respective stations to sell a variety of art and other goods. A dunking booth and a pie-ing area were set up in front of Pierre’s, which is where people could pay to do both activities and subsequently support the LGBTQIA+ charities that had been chosen by the event coordinators. Finally, there was a whole area specifically for socialization and dancing that was set up between the River Road houses and off to the side of the Stardrop Saloon, where people were mingling, dancing, and meeting others like them.

At the very end of the festival, there was to be a parade where any vehicle could enter to ride through the entirety of Pelican Town. Elliott was very certain that Shane was not going to want to have what was technically his truck, which was an older model, out in it, and was subsequently going to tag along in Penny’s and her wife, Clary’s, car. Before he could get in, however, Shane came jogging up to him, his face flushed a deep pink and breathing so hard that it immediately alarmed him.

“Shane, my darling, what is wrong??” He asked hurriedly as he walked off to the side to speak with his dear.

“I…I did something for you,” Shane panted in response. “C…come…Shit, sorry, out of shape…Gah, come look?”

Elliott was on his husband’s heels as he was led toward the back of the parade line, but once he laid eyes on what had happened he immediately dropped to his knees, shaking with tears of absolute joy and disbelieving laughter alike. Shane, his sensitive, reserved Shane, had decorated his truck entirely was lavish decorations. Pieces of fabric, each of which was occasionally pulled into a cinch to keep it all together, were hung on either side of the vehicle in the pattern of the gay pride flag. On the hood of the truck, both the gay pride flag and the trans pride flag flew high, flapping in the wind for all to see. The back windows were covered in marker ink that was specifically for car windows with their names and countless hearts all along it, all of which were in a rainbow of colors. To top it all off, there were two small canons loaded on either end of the bed of the truck toward the tailgate, and when asked, Shane informed him proudly that they were confetti canons, fully loaded with environmentally friendly/biodegradable papers and that would be shot into the spectators to end the parade on a bright note.

“So…Do you like it?” Shane asked slowly as Elliott slowly got back to his feet, the tears still streaming fully.

“Do I _like_ it?” Elliott repeated disbelievingly before scooping up Shane outright in an embrace, spinning around with him and laughing in pure bliss. “Yoba, I love it! I love it so very, truly much, my radiant, perfect, unspeakably clever husband, I do!!”

“Well, then let’s get up there!” Shane declared with a laugh, joining their hands as they rounded to the back. “Aunt Marnie is going to ride with us.”

“Papa, Dad!” Jas bounded up now, her face brightly painted now and eyes shining with the complete, innocent joy of childhood. “Auntie Marnie said you said I can come, too?”

“Well, of course you can, munchkin!” Shane said with a laugh, scooping up their girl at once and setting her in the middle of the let-down tailgate before hopping up himself and offering a hand to assist Elliott. “Shall we?”

Elliott, voice still wobbling slightly with his tears of bliss, nodded at once and accepted the hand. “We shall!”

And at the end of all of cheering crowds, overjoyed fellow community members, and more food and activities to more than tucker everyone who attended out, the Pride Event was confirmed to assuredly become an annual tradition in the town, and Shane did have a brilliant first Pride, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	25. To Get The Girl [Leah/Haley]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The author has no self-control for one of her favorite artists of all time and has based another chapter off of a Taylor Swift song.  
> TW FOR THE BEGINNING NOTES: Mentions of a problematic lesbian flag

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW FOR THESE BEGINNING NOTES: Mentions of a problematic lesbian flag 
> 
> PSA: The original prompt from one of the lists I have been using was the 'Lipstick Lesbian' flag, which was created by an EXTREMELY problematic individual who intentionally added the lipstick and used all pink to exclude those in the lesbian communities who were butch or masculine. The individual who created the flag also literally copied and pasted the design from the 'cougar' flag, which is abhorrent on a lot of levels, and is also racist and transphobic. DO NOT SUPPORT THIS FLAG. 
> 
> I would like to give the prompter the full benefit of the doubt that they had no idea of the extremely problematic history of this flag (AND KEEP IN MIND THEIR LIST IS FROM 2018 WHEN THIS INFORMATION WAS VERY NEW), so do /not/ send hate or backlash to them in any way. Everybody makes mistakes, which is what I would like to fully believe this was (though I admit I have not checked yet to verify that is what this is). I would instead encourage you all to be extremely aware of what you promote and what the history behind the icons you use are so that you can be a conscious consumer. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this one shot! ♥

**Day Twenty-Five: Lesbian Flag and Mistake**

Leah was woken up by the sound of tapping on her bedroom window. Reluctantly, she rubbed her eyes and slid out of the bed, taking care to not to disturb her mounds of pillows as she walked over to the slightly shaking glass. Outside, it was pouring down rain, and she imagined that it was not possible that anybody could genuinely be out there- especially at this early hour!- but she felt that she had to check for the sake of her own peace of mind. As she undid the latches and pushed it open hesitantly, one hand remaining on the hidden mace she kept nearby this potential access point into her house, she was shocked to see the form of a person standing out in the dark, miserable night.

“Hello??” She called to them, squinting and fumbling to turn on the flashlight on her phone. “Hello, are you alright out there?? Shane?? Linus??”

“Leah!” The voice that replied was one that the half-asleep cottage owner recognized immediately, and it sent her slamming the window shut and practically flying to fling open the front door.

“Haley!” Leah called, shivering as the rain immediately began trying to blow into her house. “What in Yoba’s name are you _doing_?! Are you _drunk_?!”

“No!” Haley replied, pulling the thin piece of clothing that was covering up her tube top around her torso more tightly. “Leah, I need to talk to you, and I know you don’t want me anymore and you don’t want to see me, and you won’t answer my calls or my knocking during the day, s-so…So I’m here now! Please…please hear me out, Leah!”

Leah hesitated, her grip on the door handle tighter. It would be easy to shut her out again, to go back to bed and to pretend all of this had never happened. Certainly, it would be easier than opening her heart up again to the other woman who had caused her so much grief, so much heartache and tears. The two of them had been broken up for six months, and even if the blonde had been trying to talk to her for around a month, Leah simply was not willing to let herself be hurt again by somebody who had no true idea of what they wanted or who they were. It had been too horrible the first time to get her heart broken, and yet…She simply could not deny the happiness and life that Haley had brought her before they had fallen apart.

“Make it quick,” Leah finally demanded, gesturing toward the inside of the cottage.

Haley, much to her surprise, walked to be fully in the light freshly pouring from inside but did not fully enter. Instead, she spread out her arms in a pleading fashion, and began talking.

“Leah…Leaving you was something I cannot even fathom that I once did. I…I must have completely lost my mind. Yoba, it h-has been such a long six months, and I have been so damn afraid, Leah. So damn afraid of being honest with myself about who I was born to be…So damn afraid of being vulnerable with another person, with _you_ , even when I was so- _am so_ \- in love with you…So damn afraid of getting over my own pride and coming to you now to spill my heart out. And yes, I’m still fucking terrified, but I am done running away from it! I am done trying to hide from my problems and my mistakes, and I’m done trying to get away from reality! A-and…And my reality i-is this, Leah! I-I’m wildly in love with you, Leah Renee Moon Coleman! I was too afraid to let myself be with somebody who I loved s-so, so, so damn much, and so I left you! I-I-I left you, I br-broke your h-heart! And…and I know you might hate me, and you have every right too, and I know you probably won’t ever trust me again or want m-me back, but I have to be honest with you! I’ve _never_ stopped loving you! There has never been anybody else, even though we were broken up, because I knew all along where I left my heart like a coward! A-and…And even though it’s crazy, and I would not hold it against you if you decline, I…I want you, Leah! I want you for worse or for better! I broke your heart, and your trust, and our incredible, electric, beautiful relationship, and it was the stupidest decision I have ever made, but I want to put it b-back together! I want to love you so much, so deeply, so truly this time, that all of the bad stuff of the past is trimmed away and all the good can heal and flourish like it never has before! I-I…I would wait for you, my sweet, even if it sounds silly. I would wait fo-forever and ever, just to be able to make it up to you, a-and to be with you i-if you wanted. I…I am s-so-sorry, baby, I-I’m sorry, I-I love y-you! I love you!”

Leah, to say the very least, was stunned. Haley was out there, professing all that she had felt about _them_ and declaring her love in the pouring rain as though this were some dramatic movie, but this all was raw, and true, and rare. Truthfully, Leah had never gotten over Haley, either. She had tried a couple of times to date a couple of people whose names she quickly forgot, but her heart was still forever with the spunky blonde photographer with her endlessly blue eyes and incredibly tender heart. She had never truly understood why she had been left in the first place- it was sudden and devastatingly curt- but she knew that she may well spend the rest of her life trying to forget their passionate, genuine, _real_ romance.

All that had been lost and died from neglect could not be restored in one night. All questions could not be answered in one confessional, no matter how poignant and passionate. All the time and mutual love that had passed or been damaged would not heal instantly. And yet, looking at the woman she never stopped wanting to marry, wanting to try again with, Leah was certain that all of it _could_ be with time and a whole lot of communication, honesty, and love.

“Come here, my sweet,” Leah prompted with her voice unsteady from tears of both heartache and a great joy. “You…you don’t have to wait anymore. _We_ don’t have to wait anymore.”

Haley, in all of her rain-soaked, crying, and desperately in-love glory, came running toward her, the two of them tightly embracing in the light of the front room and sobbing for all of their worth into the each other’s long missed embrace.

* * *

Six months after that night, Haley and Leah were happily married, and went on to have decades upon decades of love together, complete with a yard full of children and only a couple of other instances that warranted a rainy or nighttime apology from the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	26. Promise [Alex/Haley]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter goes out to my dear Henny/adopted sister/adopted sibling, who has turned me into a true simp for this ship! ♥ (A shimp, if you will~)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'm almost caught up to finish the month on time! :) 
> 
> My Muse: *Abandons me along with my energy and health until today*
> 
> Me: ...Y'all are hoes for that-

**Day Twenty-Six: Cuddles and Ring**

“Hey, I got you something today,” Alex said softly as he laid with his lover beneath the bright sun, their legs lightly intertwined with each other and heads rested up against the other’s.

“Really?” Haley looked over to him a little more fully, her face rotated so that their noses were ever-so lightly touching. “What did you get?”

He has to wonder if she can feel his heartbeat quickening once he began to reach for her present. The two of them have been dating for nearly half a year, but they have known each other for far longer, so this feels only right. The two of them had been best friends since they were in kindergarten, when Alex had just been transferred to a brand new city in the middle of school year thanks to the extremely untimely death of his beloved mother. He’d been extremely withdrawn then, nothing like the popular kid he would become, but she had been insistent that they hang out every day, even on the ones where he didn’t speak or was not very kind. They’d been close ever since that first year, so much so that she was one of the only people in the universe that he was out to. His mother, rest her soul, had always been so adamant that he identify himself as his true gender when he’d first started talking about it at the tender age of three, and with her passing, the only people who knew of his assigned gender at birth other than Haley were her, his long-gone father, and technically his grandparents, though he suspected they may have forgotten he ever identified as anything other than ‘male.’

Haley meant the absolute world to Alex, and he was more than ready to display what his intentions for the rest of their lives were.

“This,” Alex said in a soft voice, presenting the ring to her in the palm of his hand.

The band was made of rose-gold and fairly small, giving the ring overall a daintier appearance. The bed of the gems were made of rose quartz shaped into petals, which each had metallic hearts that were colored red in the centers. He had been able to get her ring size with the collaboration of Emily, and as he watched her eyes widen and a massive, uncontained smile break out across her face, he verified in his mind that it had been worth all of the saving and gold.

“Yoba, I…” Haley began, tears rushing to her eyes as she laughed and eventually threw her arms around him, sending them both back into the grass with laughter bubbling out of both of them.. “I love it! I love it so, so, so, so, so, SO much!!”

“I want to promise myself to you,” Alex managed by the time they had calmed down a bit, the ring glimmering in the sunlight as it was on Haley’s hand for admiring. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and to bring you with me wherever I go, and to give you half of whatever I have while giving you all of who I am. I…I love you so much, my Honey Bun.”

“Oh, Alex…” Haley’s face was framed by the glow of the sunlight, her ocean eyes shining more brightly than any star in the sky. “I feel the same way for you…And I love you, my Coffee Bean.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	27. New [Elliott/Farmer]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "In order to soothe your perfectionist soul, I shall not withhold this information any longer..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to my dear friend, Kalu, who is genuinely one of the most incredible artists that I have ever met and befriended! ♥ Be sure to support her at @opal.owl.creations on Insta!

**Day Twenty-Seven: Straight Ally and Smile**

It was the perfect day for a beach trip- the sun was occasionally hidden by the rich clouds in the sky, and there was a pleasant breeze to banish humidity- and so that was precisely what Elliott and his wife decided to get up to. He was sitting on a beach town on the dry sand, being sure to sit near enough to be able to swiftly to get to and watch his lady as she walked along the shoreline and occasionally frolicked in the waves. After all, even if this was a nice day to be outside, he still had a second novel to work through the first rounds of edits for. That was precisely what he was doing, and by way of compromising with Kalu’s wants for him to still participate in trying to relax (as well as to increase the amount of mistakes to be caught), he was reading the manuscript aloud for the very first time to her. As they were the only ones here, he was comfortable doing so, but should another person show up he would return to quiet contemplation of what things should stay, what things should evolve, and what things should go. 

“’And there was much merriment- _to be made_ , not made- at the prospect of attending such a formal event’…I suppose it is too redundant to reference back to her upbringing, as the reader is already quite familiar with those circumstances she bore as a child…” Elliott read and murmured, scribbling the notes appropriately into the leaflets of paper before him. “’Though she had attended her far share of balls, Constance was certain that this would be the grandest. Even though she had been acclimating to this lifestyle for several months, having the heights of such luxuries were still foreign to her…’”

* * *

Kalu, for her part, was thoroughly enjoying their time together and being able to hear his interpretations of how the characters and prose were to be read. She was contently strolling along the shoreline, the ocean waves lapping up against her ankles and occasionally splashing across her calves, hunting for shells casually while she listened to the story. She did wish he would not be quite so strict with himself with the common mistakes that had been made- they _were_ , after all, what rough drafts and editing were for- but as a writer herself, she knew arguing would hardly do anything other than make him feel guilty for perceiving that he upset her.

“My love, could I possibly compel you to take a break?” She called over once he paused to write down something in one of his notebooks. “The water feels wonderful!”

Elliott, ever the sweetheart but equally forever the workaholic, gave her a small smile as he glanced up from his words. “Perhaps once this chapter ends, my darling. I am filled with sweet anticipation at the thought of your kind touch which so enthralls me.”

“My poet,” she called fondly in response, turning back to gaze at the horizon with a smile that she was trying to hide from him.

She was fully aware that he would not cease his work simply by her asking, but in a truly rare turn of events, she was counting on that fact. It had been quite the task to slip in a surprise of her own into the manuscript pile without disturbing it enough for him to notice it had been messed with, and they were finally at the part of the tale that he would come across it. It had truly taken all of her willpower not to spill this secret before now, especially in knowing he would see finally receive the news today, and internally wanting to speed the process up despite the idea of astounding him with it had been her plan all along.

She turned back around to face him, and she finally did not try and contain the massive grin lighting up her face as he turned over the page that was before her revealed secret.

* * *

_“To the dearest love of my life,_

_Though you love writing, it may fill you with strife._

_Some mistakes in first drafts are inevitable,_

_For a variety of different variables._

_In order to soothe your perfectionist soul,_

_I will not withhold this information any longer._

_Our lives are changing for the better once again;_

_Can’t you tell, my dear? You’re going to be a father!”_

* * *

Elliott could not initially comprehend what he was reading. Instead of the first page of Chapter Eight of his prose, he encountered a piece of cream-colored parchment with his wife’s handwriting. As he re-read the handwritten poem for the second time (silently this time), he noticed that the bottom of the parchment had been folded up and tapped where the edge met toward the middle of the paper. With especially delicate motions of his fingers, he peeled away the adhesive and revealed a photo attached, one that was undeniably that of an ultrasound. He stared at it for a long few moments before it finally seemed to permeate his consciousness, and then he was leaping to his feet, his mouth moving as though he were speaking despite how no words were summoned to his lips. He clutched the announcement to his chest protectively as he looked down to Kalu for full confirmation, immediately finding her to be positively brimming with happiness as she looked to him expectantly herself.

“Are you happy?” Kalu asked with a laugh, opening her arms invitingly toward him.

“H-happy?” Elliott sputtered as he was finally put back into motion by something seeming to open up deep inside him, something that was as vast as the water before him and as bright and nurturing as the promise of new life. “M-my darling! I…I am overjoyed! I am elated, I-I-!”

Oh well; he was certain no words could not possibly convey what he was experiencing, anyway. He delicately set down the announcement before running to her, scooping her up into his arms in the same motion as they pressed their faces to each other’s. They were laughing, they were weeping, and they were dancing together in the constant flow of their mutually beloved ocean.

Before, Elliott had imagined his greatest creation had been either of his novels, and his greatest decision had been to wed the absolute love of his life. Now, he was even more confirmed upon his best decision, but the new adoration of their marriage was new, and his greatest creation had truly just begun to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥


	28. Plushes [Sebastian/Sam]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two dorks- one the like the moon, and one the sun- love each other a lot over the ambiance of a fair. Need I say more?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh. I didn't mean for this to be fully written exactly a month after my last update (for a Pride Month tag, o o p s), but writer's block is hard and pandemics are hard and chronic pain and health are all hard. I still love you all and this story a lot, and I'm so sorry once more for the wait. ♥

**Day Twenty-Eight: Amusement Park and Anniversary**

“You know, I kind of feel bad coming here without them, even if we’ll be bringing them the next couple of nights,” Sebastian admitted as he and his husband approached the ticket booths, their hands fastened around each other’s with their mutual anticipation practically bouncing back and forth between them.

“Aw, they won’t miss a thing! Once the kids are here, it’ll be all about them having the time of their lives,” Sam assured easily while squeezing his hand. “But tonight? Tonight is _all_ about us, baby.”

“R-right,” Sebastian murmured, but it was fairly clear that Sam didn’t fully believe his words, as the blonde took the opportunity to smooch his cheek and goose his fingers up and down his stomach and back simultaneously.

Sebastian’s immediate response, naturally, was to clap one hand over his mouth and to muffle out a squeal of alarm and protest, jerking away from Sam so abruptly that he nearly lost his balance all together. “ _Samson Kendall!”_

“Whoa, whoa!” Sam immediately scrambled to catch him, pulling him tightly and protectively against his chest once he succeeded. “ _Yoba_ , I’m so sorry, are you okay?!”

“F-fine,” the dark-haired man mumbled, recoiling slightly from his husband without fully disconnecting their touching. “Y-you…you _know_ how…h-how…Damnit, never mind-”

“No, I _do_ know better,” Sam interjects in a light tone, but his eyes are solemn as he gingerly tilts his chin to meet his concerned blue eyes. “Hey. I won’t do it again, and I’m really sorry for upsetting you. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? Do you need to ground?”

“N-nah, ‘m fine,” Sebastian said, not fully convinced himself but definitely not wanting to draw any more attention to them; he could already feel peoples’ eyes burning into him, hot like cigarettes through paper.

Despite his spoken words, he almost immediately felt a familiar cube being pressed into his palm, and he wrapped his fingers around it as an involuntary shudder pulsed through his entire body. As he began to slide his fingertips along the grooved turntables and tap on the buttons, the two of them reached the ticket both. Sam, of course, did what Sam does best, and struck up a friendly conversation with the attendant as he bought their armbands. By the time they have shuffled through the steadily-moving crowd and presented their armbands to be allowed beyond the turntable-gates to the actual fairgrounds, Sebastian is already feeling a bit better, and he briefly squeezes Sam’s closest hand as they step away from the main flow of traffic to decide where to head first.

“Do you think you’re up to do rides, or would you rather head to exhibits first?” Sam asked calmly, a reassuring smile already playing at his lips, _and Yoba, Sebastian loves his husband so damn much_.

“I think I’m okay to ride on some of the calmer things, but if you have something you want to do right away, I’m alright to just watch,” Sebastian said with a small smile. “I don’t want to slow you down, even if you won’t call it that because you’re a loving spouse.”

“I will not because it isn’t!” Sam exclaimed before stealing a quick kiss to Sebastian’s cheek. “But if you’re sure you don’t mind, how about we just head over toward them and choose as we go?”

“Sounds perfect.”

For the next hour, Sebastian was largely content to watch Sam have a fantastic time on the moderate-to-high thrill rides, though he did concede to go on the teacups as well as one of the roller coasters that was fast but did not go upside down. They take a break afterwards to share an oversized plate of fully-loaded nachos, during which they listen to a couple of the local singers do their performance sets. When they set back out, Sebastian goes on a few more of the moderate-thrill attractions, but the last one he does- one that goes up extremely high before ‘freefalling’ toward the ground- made his stomach ache painfully, so they headed to look at the showcase animals and browse the homemade art, where they support Emily by getting a new quilt for the couch, buy a couple of cactus juices from her wife, Sandy, and allow Haley to take a Polaroid of them in exchange for a couple of dollars. (Sebastian truly was not one to want to pose for a picture that he could not review and edit himself, but Sam had so clearly been delighted by the prospect, so how could he have possibly resisted?)

In order to get to the rest of the rides, they would have to walk through at least one row of the carnival games, so it was not terribly surprising when one of them caught Sam’s attention and brough them to an abrupt stop. As he followed his love’s gaze, it became obvious that the subject of his attention was a massive dog plushie hanging from one of the booth’s uppermost hooks. It was a German Shepperd plush with a small ‘tongue’ poking out of it’s mouth, and though Sebastian was anticipating Sam eagerly pointing it out or laughing at it with some endearment, he was admittedly not expecting how his husband wiped at a bit of moisture from his eyes.

“S-sorry,” Sam said with a small laugh. “My family had a dog just like that when I was a little kid. His name was Lenny, and…Well, he was a really good boy. I wish you could have met him.”

Sebastian could not help but to think two things as he squeezed his lover’s hand and encouraged him gently to play the game; they _had_ to get that plush, even if it would be sold elsewhere, because this one clearly meant so much to the man he loved, and that only Sam would have had a beloved family dog that was inadvertently named after one of the most iconic memes of all time. The game in question was a guessing game, one based on the amount of marbles were inside of three differently shaped and sized jars. As was to be expected, the smallest jar had the easiest to guess shape- in a cylinder- and the least amount of marbles, and the largest was a jug with a fillable handle as well as significantly more marbles in it. Sam took a long look at all three and took a guess at the middle jar, but even as he wrote it, Sebastian knew that his poor man’s guess was going to be _far_ off from the actual contents of the container long before the worker informed them that his attempt was incorrect, but it all happened too quickly for him to speak up about it. _Damn it…_

“Well, I tried!” Sam says with a weak laugh, but Sebastian did not miss for a second how his sunshine’s eyes flitted to the plush even now. “You ready to move on?”

“Actually…I want to try.”

The words surprise even _him_ as he says them, but he is not going to back away from his internal promise to Sam, not even for his own social anxiety. Sebastian steps forward and pulls out his phone, setting it on the bench between them and the attendant just so he could not be accused of somehow cheating, and pulled up a blank ‘note’ on the appropriate app. From there, he used his finger to make quick notes about the approximate surface area of the jar, the formulas for calculating the mass of its’ shape, and what he could see just from where he stood before quickly running the calculations.

“There are 2, 348 marbles in that jar,” he announced after a minute or so, sliding the five dollars required to play to the attendant and watching with some amusement as the guy’s jaw fell open.

“That…that is correct!” The other man stammered, glancing back and forth between Sebastian and his notes before asking which prize they wanted with equal flusterment.

Moments later, the couple walked away with the massive toy in Sam’s arms, and the sheer amount of joy radiating off of his husband was more than enough to convince Sebastian that the awkwardness and lingering anxieties were well worth it. As far as he was concerned, they would partake in a couple of more rides that they would not be able to do with the little ones around, probably get some cotton candy, and then head out to get significantly less overpriced food, but he could not help but notice that the final game both on the left-hand size had a frog plushie. Not only that, but it was a frog plushie with a whole little crown on it’s head, and he could not help but to smile a little as he took notice of it. Had it been up to him, they would have just kept walking and he would possibly look it up elsewhere, but..

“Oh my Yoba, that’s just perfect for you!” Sam exclaimed, having taken notice far more quickly than Sebastian is sure he would have. “Do you want that one, babe?? I’ll win it for you!”

Before he had any chance to protest, there they were, and he was holding an oversized stuffed animal while Sam handed over the gold to play the game. It was simple, involving popping balloons with a set amount of darts, and the smaller prizes could be traded in for the bigger ones when a certain number was achieved. Given his proficiency, Sebastian was not terribly worried about how long this may take his darling, and evidently Sam thought the same, but it was evident rather rapidly that this particular booth was rigged; Sam hit at least three of the balloons, which was one more than the requirement to get a small plush, but none of them popped.

“C’mon, Sammy, it’s not worth it,” he murmured, scowling not-so subtly at the smug looking attendant who offered for them to ‘try again.’

Sam, of course, had other ideas, and outright smacked the gold this time on the counter as he opened up his other expectantly for the dulled-down darts. The next thing both the booth runner and Sebastian knew, _four_ balloons were popped with just two of the darts, and Sam was grinning with the same smug pride of the person before them as he snapped his wrist forward and easily got more balloons with the remaining darts, throwing with _sharp_ accuracy despite the obvious increase in force they were being thrown with.

Sebastian, to say the least, was able to bury his blush into his new frog plush as Sam happily walked away with one arm around him and the other carrying his oversized dog stuffie.

After going on a couple of more roller coasters and a couple of times on the high-up swings, the two of them mutually decided to go on the classic Ferris Wheel. With their prizes tucked in front of them in their cart and the two of them cuddled on the other side, they were able to get a few aesthetically pleasing photos for Sam’s socials, and a couple of cute selfies themselves. Ultimately, the night had been a glowing success, and as far as Sebastian was concerned, as they sat together on the top of a brightly glowing world beneath a beautiful moon, he and his husband had found a slice of infinite happiness.

“Happy five-year anniversary, Sammy,” he murmured in his spouse’s ear.

He was instantly greeted with one of Sam’s softest, most tender, and sincerely-prolonged kisses, and the feeling of his darling’s arms holding him as though he would never let go. “Happy five years, Sebby. And to a million and one more.”


	29. The One [Shane/Elliott]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "But we were something, don't you think so? Roaring twenties tossing pennies in the pool...And if my wishes came true, it would have been you." -Taylor Swift, folklore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I felt it appropriate to use /another/ one of my queen's songs to summarize this chapter, though I admittedly did not think of it until thinking of a chapter title. We all love some good angst-with-a-positive-ending, yes~? ;)

**Day Twenty-Nine: Parade and The One That Got Away**

Shane doesn't want to so much as open his eyes today, much less shower and dress up nicely, but he does it. He scrubs his scalp until his fingers are sore, he shaves his stubble cleanly, he irons his blazer, he puts on clean pants. He uses the mirror in his room to make sure his buttons are even and that his tie is straight, then flips it so that he doesn't have to look at myself anymore. He braids Jas's hair when she asks him to and compliments her new pretty dress. He cleans up their breakfast dishes and kisses Marnie's cheek before they all head outside.

He doesn't comment on the utter despair and self-loathing that sits in the very center of his soul, a steady stream of more of it causing the imaginary basin that holds all of his emotions. He promises himself once again that he will not lose control in front of anyone, even when it inevitably overflows from his eyes.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Marnie asks him once they have done a final check of the cow pastures and Jas is feeding them their morning apple slices. "You really don't have to go, Shane. Nobody would blame you for not wanting to."

"I know, Aunt Marnie," he says with the ghost of a smile, which is the most comforting thing he can manage for anyone else. "I want to go. I'm happy for them, I really am."

"Well, sure…" She says with a grimace that has sympathy not-so-subtly surrounding the edges of it. "But it still can't be easy for you to him marrying somebody else. I know I wouldn't want to go to one of my ex's weddings, especially if they broke my heart anywhere close to as badly as he broke yours."

"Seriously, Marn, I'm fine," Shane insists, trying not to snap at her when he knows she means well. "Don't worry about it. This is a day to celebrate the future and all that, not to worry about shit that went down a long time ago. Okay?"

"…If you insist, baby." Marnie still kisses his forehead and gives him a reassuring smile, and he truthfully can't bring himself to be bitter with her lack of tact. Besides, it's not really her who's the problem here, it's him. It's always him.

The walk into town feels a helluva lot shorter than usual, but that's probably because he is dreading where they're going, even more so than he used to dread going to Joja. He almost scoffs out loud at that realization, too; who knew that anything could be worse than that hell show of a job? At least the decorations are a helluva lot better around here than the mass-produced corporate blue that Joja used to have before their influence infecting this town got uprooted along with the equally corrupt influence of the piece of shit who broke Marnie's heart on more than one occasion.

Anyway, he can't help but think that the coral, pure white, and light green colors that take up every available surface of the town square suit both of the people getting hitched today. The green, of course, is for the farm; a large plot of land that was overgrown and questionable in its' viability that was now a flourishing, beautiful source of life and income alike. The white was for the wholesome purity of marriage, or whatever other flowery, traditional BS went along with becoming legally bound to another person. The coral is for the former seaside dweller, the man who Shane could not decide if he was dreading or eager to see. Though these colors are lavishly adorning the town square, the real ceremony will be taking place at the beach while the reception will be here, so Shane and his 'girls' keep heading that way. The closer they get, the more fanciful and bountiful the decorations get, and the smell of the ocean is the only thing prominent enough to match their presence by the time they get to the set-up wedding guest chairs.

"There are so many flower petals!" Jas exclaims in delight, running between the rows that are still vacant and picking a few up from where they are scattered on the ground. "It's so pretty!"

"I'm glad you like them, dear, but don't go touching them. I bet they're arranged just so for a reason," Marnie says gently but firmly. "Now come on, let's get you all set up to do your own flowers, alright?"

It looks like the whole town is going to be turning up for the celebration, but Shane can't say that he blames them. This is the first wedding that Pelican Town has had in a couple of years, and there wasn't a soul who had ever met the farmer that didn't love her. Elliott was much more of a quiet guy, someone who spent a lot of time in private to gather inspiration for writing or actually writing his novels, so not as many people knew him, but those who did could not deny or forget him if they even dared to try. The fact that two exceptional people had found a love that they would have for their rest of their lives, then, was the central talk of the town for the last couple of weeks. Shane guesses he shouldn't be surprised about this after all.

Sooner rather than later, the music changed from background love songs to begin playing a processional, and the wedding party began their parade down the silky walkway. Jas, beaming with happiness and excitement, walked alongside Vincent, throwing the flower petals from her basket with an obvious pattern while Vincent mostly looked like he was trying not to drop the rings. The bridal and groom parties walked out in pairs behind the kids, which included Leah- someone he knew fairly well from the bar-, Emily who he knew pretty well from the same place, (Miss) Penny, and the old fisherman who ran the fishing shop on the docks. There were a few other people partnered with those four, but he didn't know them and didn't care to.

Behind them, the adoptive daughter of the groom- Kyrori- walked her father down the aisle, her arms around one of his and the two of the beaming as brightly as the very sun. Shane's breath caught in his throat as he got a look at the man that he had so much history with, and who he could never seem to put words on the nature of their relationship once their romance burned out and died. His long, copper hair was held back into a ribbon that had each of the three main colors of the wedding, and his bangs had been delicately and elaborated braided back to feed into the ponytail. He was wearing a traditional black blazer and black slacks, but his tie was seafoam green and matched his folded handkerchief. His emerald eyes were shining with elation as he walked alongside his sweet girl, and Shane felt as though he were watching on to all of this as a spectator in own body. For a moment, the two of them made eye contact. Something warm flickered in the taller, beautiful man's eyes- was it warmth, or disappointment, or just surprise?- and Shane managed a small, tight smile in response before Elliott looked back toward the elaborately decorated arch and staging area with another blushing smile.

If not for everyone else around him turning around to look at the bride, Shane likely would not have moved from his position, eyes seeming to be unable to leave looking at the man he undeniably still loved. The memories washed over him in snippets, all of the emotions they still held filling his chest like a stream to an echoing cavern.

_Elliott and I toasting to our friendship. Walks by the seaside, and how he never went too quickly for me to keep up. Tangled in the bedsheets, the smell of pomegranate and his own cheap bath soap. Fishing all over town, cooking them over the fire, laughing when marshmallows caught the flames. Making pancakes with him and his daughter. Both of us looking up at the stars and feeling like they had found infinity._

_All of the fighting over my drinking. Making him cry because I relapsed and passed out in the middle of the street. Never knowing how to communicate with him without making it seem like I never listened. Scaring his kid when my temper got hot. Him walking out on me with her to go sleep at a friend's. Our break-up, when it was pouring down rain like some cheesy movie, and he said that he could no longer keep harming himself on broken pieces. The way we both cried. The way we both spiraled until he finally found a soft place to land. The way I don't know if I ever want to move on._

Elliott's bride- his witty, hard-working, headstrong bride, Serena- was more stunning than Shane could have ever imagined she'd be, just like her groom. Her dress was a slightly darker shade of white, sat on either side of her toned, strong shoulders, and was covered in lace flowers; it lightly hugged at her waist before eloquently billowing out around and over her legs and feet. Her strawberry blonde hair was curled into ringlets and loosely pinned back with several seashell hair pins, framing her face and holding back her lengthy white veil. Her makeup was bold but nod gaudy, matching the colors of the wedding as was expected, and her bouquet had the same sea green foam colors as Elliott's tie/handkerchief. The train of the dress followed behind her smoothly as she held fast to her father's arm, her eyes sparkling more brightly than every star in the sky as she looked on to her wedding party, and to the love of her life waiting for her.

Shane was very good friends with Serena. As a matter of fact, she was one of the ones who kicked his ass into high gear in shaking his alcoholism and treating his depression. She had been just as persistent with him as she was with everyone else in the community, even after he was outright nasty to her on more than one occasion. He had been heartbroken when he found out that she was dating his ex, but she had been so worried that he would be angry or hate her, and he just couldn't bring himself to make her cry. Both of them were good people- they really were- and they deserved each other. Shane knew all of that good and damn well, but seeing them finally officiate that they'd be together forever when he had loved both of them, one in secret and one in full public view…He just hoped nobody expected him to actually try and maintain his sobriety tonight.

The wedding itself was very sweet and emotional, which was pretty expected considering who it was tying the knot. Both of them wrote their own vows, and there was not a dry eye left on the beach by the time it was all said and done. After the newlyweds had their first kiss as a married couple and got to run off to have their pictures, laughing and looking at each other like they were the only people in the world, Shane decided to hang back while Marnie visited and gossiped with the other women of Pelican Town and Jas played with Vincent and a couple of other younger kids from other couples. He managed to abstain from the bottle until they got back into town square, but once they were there and he found himself alone, he poured the first of his water bottle into a class of punch and began to nurse the agony he felt inside.

"Hey, Shane!"

He wasn't expecting anybody to talk to him, and he nearly dropped his punch in his surprise. There was Emily, changed out of her bridesmaid dress and wearing a fancy-looking romper that would undoubtedly give her free range of her movement along with her flats. She was smiling at him and took a seat beside him on the bench, sighing softly as she stretches out her legs and rolls out her neck gently.

"Today sure has been busy!" She chirps, as though the two of them always have conversations like this. "It's been a lot of fun, but _Yoba_ , I'm feeling pretty beat! I know I will be sleeping good tonight!"

"Uh…yeah," Shane mumbles, averting his eyes from her and taking another long drink out of his glass.

"So! Who do you think is going to get married next? Alex and Haley are already married with my sweet little niece, Leah and Arty got married before them and are just _precious_ with their kiddos…My bet is personally on Sebastian and Sam."

Shane shifts uncomfortably once more; does she not notice how he doesn't want to be here, or does she just not care? "Yeah…Yeah, I guess, that's…whatever, Em. I don't really care if I'm being honest with you, though."

She visibly wilts in response, and guilt immediately slams into his mind and socks him in the stomach while he's at it. _What a jerk_. He tries to salvage it by saying, "Look, I'm sorry, I…I didn't mean to be an asshole about it. That's just really not something I like to think too hard about, okay?"

Emily looks up at him fully, and he swears his heart does a funky little half-skip when her eyes catch just so in the sunlight. "You're so valid, but if I may ask…Why not?"

He lets out a weak laugh and finishes off his cup, not bothering to try and hide how he is spiking his own drink in front of her. "Well, I'm not going to ever get hitched, so I guess I don't want to bother with it. It's just depressin' for me, I guess…Damn, now I sound like a real washed-up loser. Shit."

"Why would you think you won't get married someday?" She asks gently, her genuine concern piercing right through all of his defensive armor. "Shane, you may not be perfect, and you may still have your vices, but you are a good man. Anybody would be lucky to have you as their husband."

"Well, at least one of us thinks optimistically," he says with a humorless half-laugh before getting more sincere himself. "But…That means a lot coming from you, Em. Thank you for always being so nice to me…even when I'm an asshole."

"We as people don't have to always be at our best to be worthy of unconditional positive regard, Shane," she replies, one of her hands going to rest on his, and his breathing gets funny just a moment. _Beautiful, so damn beautiful and good, inside and out_. "But…I am sorry I brought up what is certainly a sore subject for you. I don't blame you for being sad here, even if I know you're happy for them, too."

He'll be honest, he wasn't expecting for _her_ of all people to get what he was going through. Any person would have to be off their rocker to not be with her, and she was one of the kindest, most sincere and earnest people in the entire Valley. She saw the good in folks and forgave the bad before she even saw their asshole side. How could she relate to his struggle with still being in love with a man who had moved on almost two full years ago? How could she, someone who was always about living and letting go, sympathize with him instead of just pity him like so many others? Why would she make such a bold statement when surely there was no way for her to back it up…?

Shane finally looked up properly from his own pool of self-loathing and found how Emily's eyes watched Serena as she walked around and socialized with her wedding guests.

_Ah…Oh. Oh, SHIT-_

"I didn't…know you two were a thing," he says bashfully, rubbing at the back of his neck and setting his half-filled cup down at last. "I mean, I was probably too smashed to get my head out of my own ass, but…"

"I wish you wouldn't talk about yourself so negatively," Emily interjects, her tone loving but firm. "But…Yes, we briefly dated, though it was in private. It ended thanks to our love languages being a little too different, and our mutual inability to communicate as effectively as we needed to. I…Well, you know that I am also polyamorous, and that didn't sit very well with her, even though I am willing for monogamy as well. All of that combined…Well, I suppose we were always better suited for being best friends rather than lovers."

Shane is awkward for several long moments that feel more like an eternity. What is he supposed to say? Emily always sees the best in every situation, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that her heart is still hurting over that failed relationship, even if maybe it isn't as debilitating for her as it is for him. He watches how her eyes follow Serena, and decides to slowly wrap his arm around her, finally bringing his forehead to rest on her shoulder.

"Look, I'm no guy to be giving relationship advice...But any person in the entire world would be privileged enough to be able to date you. You're absolutely incredible, and I don't know all of the nitty gritty, but I think you're more likely to be the one who got away for any ex than they would be for you," he says slowly, watching her expression nervously and hoping to Yoba he isn't making it worse. "So...Try not to worry about it too much, Em. You'll be more than in love and happy in a marriage before you can imagine."

Among all of the things that he wasn't anticipating to happen today, he expected her giving him a hug the most, but he didn't expect for her to do it so...deeply. She sinks her full upper body weight into him, her face pressed into his neck and arms laced around his, and though he heistates a bit before bringing her against him fully, he does do so after a few moments of internal debate. He can't help but wonder with some embarassment if she can feel the outline of his binder with the way she is holding him, but he tries to brush it aside with the absolute knowledge that she wouldn't mind even if she did. She was practically sunshine incarinate, a bright flower that moved to her own beat...Even if this hug made his chest feel warm and his belly fill with butterflies, he tried to scold himself harshly enough to ward off the very idea that he like her much more than as a friend. She would never go for someone like him! Surely she had enough self-respect for that, no matter her own loneliness!

"Thank you, Shane." And then she is leaning her head up and kissing his cheek, briefly and tenderly. "That means a lot. I'll see you soon, okay?"

Just as quickly as she had come, she bounds back off to her sister, and he is left red-faced and feeling like perhaps he doesn't need to drink quite as much as he thought he may need to. He subsequently finds himself sinking into the comfort of this natural high, and gets so lost within it that he does not notice that he has been joined once more until a warm shoulder is brushing against his own.

"Ah!" He exclaims, flushing further as he realizes just _who_ has come to visit with him. "El! Hey...H-how-? Wait, no, stupid question, you must be doing pretty great...I'm really happy for you, man. Congratulations."

"That truly means a lot to me," Elliott replies steadily, smiling warmly and bringing Shane into a huge himself, though this one is notably more refrained in closeness than the one he shared with Emily. "And I am so very glad that you attended! I cannot imagine being unable to share something like this with such a dear friend."

Shane may not consider himself to be the smartest guy around, and definitely a helluva less intelligent than Elliott, but he can immediately pick up on the unspoken tension in his ex's words. Elliott has some guilt about inviting him, and about potentially breaking open old scarring. Even if it's true that he wants him here (and Shane knows the man well enough to know that he would never say anything that he did not mean with such warmth), he does not want to be hung on the past or to make anyone feel badly.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. You and Serena are two of the closest buddies I have," he says with a wave of his hand, as though he hadn't been doing some self-medication by way of his oldest vice only a few minutes before. "And it was a really beautiful ceremony, too. Really nice colors, and seeing pure love is always nice, even from an old grump like me."

Elliott laughs outright at that, his nose wrinkling ever-so slightly and the corners of his eyes crinkling, and while Shane cannot deny the ache it sends through him, he also cannot pretend he isn't still overjoyed for him being so happy. "We have achieved the highest praise, truly! What a merry day!"

Shane laughs himself, and finds his eyes scanning the crowd to see where Emily went off to now. This action does not go unnoticed.

"You seemed like you were having fun with Emily," Elliott comments, trying (and failing miserably) to hide the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "I have always thought the notion that lovers meet on the day of an already most phenomenal, joyous day, such as a birthday...or a wedding~"

"Aw, she can do far better than a washed-up pessimist like me," Shane says with a snort. "C'mon, don't lower her standards for her."

"Nonesense! Emily is a wonderful friend and person, but so are you, no matter how insist to deny it!" Elliott exclaims at once, clasping his shoulder and looking into his eyes with _such_ sincerity that makes Shane feels as though his knees are jelly. "Shane, you are such a strong, unique man. I know that you would love her, treasure her, bring her joy and comfort alike...Why, I have special experience knowing just how exceptional and nurturing you are as both a man and as a partner! My dear friend, if you fancy her, I insist that you go and sweep her off of her feet! Life is fickle and love is not fleeting, good sir!"

He and Emily..."And how do you know that she wouldn't laugh me out of the town, hmmm, Mister Poet?"

"Oh, dear Yoba!" Elliott puts a hand to his forehead, as though he felt faint. "Did you not see how she was looking at you? How she embraced you? Go! Go to her, Shane, at once!"

Shane is subsequently shooed off of the bench not-so subtly, and though he blushes like a sinner on holy ground as he stammers out asking Emily to dance, he cannot deny the warmth that seems to fill him from head to toe as she happily accepts and pulls him along to the dancing area. _Perhaps getting out of bed today was not just a tedious task after all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave kudos/subscribe/bookmark/leave a comment if it so compels you! <3


	30. Golden [Harvey/Elliott]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The previous experiences that have left scars on two of the other bachelors of Pelican Town have left them worse for wear in some ways, particularly in the area of love. Among all of this hardship and their mutual perseverance, they happen to find each other in the most unexpected of ways.
> 
> [CONTENT ADVISORY: Needle descriptions/medical situations in the first part, self loathing in the second part, FULL ADVISORIES IN BEGINNING NOTES]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FULL CONTENT ADVISORY: Needle descriptions/medical situations in the first part, partial nudity in the first part self-loathing and negative thinking in the second part, a couple of sexually suggestive lines. EACH PART IS SEPARATED BY A LINE]
> 
> With the chapter advisories now said so that everyone is on the same page about the contents of this chapter, I am here to say HOLY CRAP, WE MADE IT! Of course, I did not finish this SDV Pride Month/Pride Prompt themed fic on time for the end of Pride and have been slowly updating it, but now we are at the very end of August (and at 4:21 AM typing this and working on this because yay chronic pain causing insomnia and random bursts of inspiration!), and IT IS COMPLETE! I want to take a moment and thank every single one of you for all of your support, your comments, your suggestions, your thoughts, and all of the love! ♥ I have written for ships that I would have /never/ considered before or loved as much as I do had it not been for so many of you and my love for this story combined with my want to adventure outside of my comfort zones a bit and challenge myself healthily as a writer. I could not be more thrilled and proud of the results, and I am immensely humbled and grateful that so many of you have come along this journey with me. From the most sincere parts of my soul, thank you so very much, and I hope you all enjoy this final Pride-prompt themed one-shot. ♥

**Day Thirty: Homosexual Flag and The Future**

On the day that they properly met, Elliott could not say that he felt his most eloquent or attractive, but it ultimately did not seem to matter to Harvey.

“Elliott Quincy?” Maru called from behind the receptionist’s desk, giving him a friendly smile. “The doctor will see you now.”

Elliott managed a weak smile in return, standing up from one of the plastic chairs and hugging the blanket around his shoulders a little more tightly to himself. “Th-thank you, dearest Maru.”

He shuffled his way into the first exam room, acquiring a tissue from the doctor’s counter on his way to sit on the examination table. He loathed to allow anyone to see him like this, truly, but he had seemed to run out of all other options. His usual laundry list of medications to battle his increasingly stubborn and recurrent ailments had been exhausted with no positive results, and the severity of it had only seemed to amplify with each failed attempt. He was not one that had any interest in sitting before a doctor and being told all of the things he had already heard a thousand times before, and to be shamed for his less-than-healthy life decisions before he _finally_ got his hands on a prescription that would (hopefully) work. Admittedly, he had only ever come to Doctor Harvey’s clinic for routine check-ups on occasion, and the man seemed nice enough, but he was long set in the ideology that physicians were all the same at the end of the day.

 _What an utter burden upon my time…_ He thinks mournfully to himself, fully allowing himself a romp in his own self-pity until the door is knocked on and Doctor Harvey enters.

“Good morning, Elliott!” Harvey says, the energy that he man puts out being nothing but polite and calming at once. “How have you been?”

“I suppose…that I have been better,” Elliott concedes with a weak smile. “And good morning to you as well, good sir.”

“I see, I see. Could you tell me a little bit about why you are here today?” Harvey asks, settling into his rolling chair and arranging his files until he seems to find the chart he is searching for.

Taking a silent deep breath, Elliott begins to detail his condition; how it began as a cold but has delved into more than that, how it is a reoccurring condition that he seems to have no luck at all in preventing it, how he has been tested countless times and been proven negative for any environmental allergies. Truthfully, he knows in his heart that his residence being that of a stuffy, one room cabin cannot at all alleviate his body’s natural insistence for illness, but he forgoes mentioning that to the physician. He braces for the impact of being scolded medically, or for the disbelief that always seemed to fancy all medics who could never truly find a long-term solution to his ailments, but it never came. Instead, Harvey took note of every single concern and symptom that he listed, only ever interrupting to ask for further clarification, and looked to him not with pity, but with… _concern_ , the kind that simply radiates authenticity.

“I know that it must be such a hassle to live with and try and work around chronic conditions, particularly those that make you miserable,” Harvey finally says as he sets aside his clipboard. “I suppose that it is good news that this is not a viral infection, nor a contagion, but that does not make you feel any better on a physical level, unfortunately.”

Elliott gives him a weak laugh that, the noise slightly distorted thanks to his nose being stuffy. “Unfortunately not, but that is certainly the one good thing that comes of this sickness.”

Harvey gives him another sympathetic smile before picking up his phone, speaking to Maru briefly in medical jargon, and walking to over to the door. “Well, Mister Quincy, my recommendation to you is that you receive a regular prescription for a set of multivitamins that are sold together in a large package. Would you prefer regular pills or gummies?”

Elliott’s face flushes at once from more than his mild fever and finds himself hoping that the other man does not take notice. “I-I…I apologize, I had no idea that…fruit gummies were an option available to adults.”

“Certainly. They are higher in dosage than those we give to children, but I have always thought it only fair to offer those to those who simply like the taste of them, or perhaps have difficulty to swallowing multiple pills,” Harvey says with a bright, sincere smile, and Elliott cannot deny how his heart skips a beat at such a passionate display of compassion. “Should I put you down for those, sir?”

Feeling entirely too flustered and touched to trust his words, Elliott gives him a nod, then averts his gaze down so that he can watch his primary care physician through his eyelashes instead as he washes his hands, puts on a pair of gloves, and retrieves something from Maru post opening the door a bit. Harvey undeniably had something that his previous doctors did not, whether it be the gentle demeanor, the thoughtfulness that he obviously had for his patients, or simply the genuine empathy that practically radiated off of him. How could he ever feel crass toward such a kindly, well-intentioned individual? Oh, he _sorely_ felt like a fool for his previous passive-aggressive assumptions.

“Now…” Harvey says delicately, revealing that he was now holding a syringe that he gently thumped with the opposite hand. “It is also in my professional opinion that a booster shot would do you quite a bit of good in your overall health. I know that this next part of your treatment is something that many people struggle with. I want you to know that I will be right here with you the entire time, and I will not allow anything to harm you. It will only pinch for a moment, and I have a tool that I can apply to the surface of your skin to distract your nerves so that you barely feel it. I know it may be difficult, but please know that you can put your trust in me. I will not let you fall.”

Elliott personally did not have an aversion to needles, but he simply could not imagine that anyone would not be happy to relax around such a gentle, thoroughly comforting man! “Ah, that is…quite alright, sir. I am not afraid.”

He began to roll up his sleeve, only to be gently halted and… _corrected_ as to where this booster would be applied. He knew at once that his red cheeks could not possibly be hidden from his doctor as he shyly got to his feet, turning around and beginning to fumble with his belt and the zip of his trousers. Again Harvey offers to tool to help the pain be less significant as well as more gentle reassurances, which he politely declined with the new shyness he felt creeping unmistakably into his voice. _Yoba curse my predisposition for sickness, and the measures that are appropriate to help prevent it!_

“Now, now, this is a routine medical procedure. There is nothing at all to be embarrassed about,” Harvey soothed, placing a steadying hand Elliott’s back that makes the other man shiver just a bit. “I know that is easier said than done, but rest assured, your confidentiality and your health and safety are my highest priorities.”

“D-Doctor Harvey, I have no qualms about that,” Elliott replied, peeking over his shoulder in order to give the other man a genuine smile of his own.

Much to his surprise, Harvey seemed to have pink dusting his own cheeks now as well. He looked back forward with a smile tugging on the corners of his lips despite his rather…e _xposed_ position with the seat of his pants being lowered halfway down his _other_ cheeks. Harvey gently swabbed the area with rubbing alcohol, his fingers lightly brushing on his bare skin, and little sparks of electricity seemed to race up and down the writer’s spine while butterflies danced around his belly. The needle slid in seamlessly and quickly as possible, and before long he was able to readjust his pants and give the medic an embarrassed but affectionate smile.

“You did very well!” Harvey praised as he safely discarded the syringe, giving Elliott a warm smile and undeniably pink-faced now as well as he looks up to him. “Would you like a lollipop for being such a good, kind patient?”

Elliott could not help but to grin then, and to think to himself that if even if he hadn’t begun to feel better physically quite that in that moment, he _undoubtedly_ did emotionally. “Why yes, my good doctor, I believe I would!”

* * *

Harvey was not expecting anybody to join in his reflective, sorrowful solitude, not even the two men who lived on the beach. He sat on the edge of the pier, the legs of his pants being sprayed occasionally by the restless ocean and his feet bared, looking across the dark grey of the horizons. Today was one of those days where the voices in his head that diminished all of the good that he had done and extenuated his countless mistakes were loud and persistent, and he was frankly too mentally exhausted to resist them.

He was so engrossed in his own self-loathing that he did not hear or notice someone approaching from behind. He outright jumped when a figure suddenly sat his side as an umbrella was held over his head, effectively protecting him from the steady rainfall. He looked over to see who had joined him and found Elliott, the local writer who owned the tiny cabin by the sea. The other man’s expression was impossible to read, but the doctor could not help but grow flush both in his alarm and by just how _handsome_ the author was, with his strong chin, plump lips, and iridescent emerald eyes.

“It is such a somber afternoon,” Elliott remarked, and for a moment, Harvey felt completely ridiculous for defying what he himself may recommend in not sitting out in the rain, especially as the chill of the spring evening sets in. “I cannot help but to appreciate as such, though. A curtain of gray, the ocean in her restless glory…It can be very inspirational and serve for an excellent grounds for that.”

“…Heh, yes, I…suppose so,” Harvey said with a small, tight smile. “…I understand if you are questioning why I would come out here in such gloomy weather. I…must concede that I am not entirely sure myself. I just…couldn’t stand a moment more in my apartment or in my clinic. I can’t really explain it, I guess, but…”

Elliott raised his free hand, causing him to clam up immediately. “You need not justify yourself to me, Harvey. Each of us have our motifs for doing the things that we do, subconsciously or otherwise. It is not my place, nor my desire, to judge those experiences which may not always identical to my own.”

Harvey is surprised by the sentiment to say the least, but he supposes that he shouldn’t be. After all, this man has a reputation for being a rather romantic fellow, and his own experiences with him have only ever been quite positive. Still, he couldn’t help but think that it is special that he can do something so unusual and not be judged for it, even silently.

“…Thank you, Elliott,” he said finally, giving him a more genuine smile before becoming too flustered to maintain direct eye contact and looking back across the ocean grey.

The silence felt entirely too awkward and it made the voices bouncing around in his head that much louder. Anxiety knawed at the base of his stomach more and more fiercely, the intrusive thoughts filling his brain with agonizing self-doubt and insults that made him feel as though his head was of full of nothing but static. He tried to sit quietly in it, as he was before, but the presence of another had seemed to fully interrupt the cycle of self-abuse. The warmth shown by Elliott as well as the literal body heat that pulsed between the two of them as they sat close enough to touch, close enough to share this umbrella…It was his undoing.

“Do you ever have days where all you can think about is the stuff that you’ve done wrong in your life? O-or the stuff you could’ve, _should’ve,_ done better?” Harvey asked abruptly, his words all right after each other and a shudder rippling through his entire body as he finished exclaiming.

“Yes.” There is absolutely no hesitation in Elliott’s response, and when he turns to look at him, he finds that his companion looking over the turbulent waves as well. “If you would like…I am able and more than willing to listen to your plights. Perhaps provide you with some insight or reassurance, if you would so allow me to do so.”

Again, Harvey was far from expecting such patience and kindness from the other man, but it all came pouring out before he could decide whether or not he wanted to open up like that to someone he did not know very well. He talked about how he worries that people only seek out his services because he was the only local doctor, not because his work is exceptional. He talked about his vast insecurities in being so old compared to most of the other eligible bachelors and bachelorettes, and how he had spent many, many nights alone, wondering if true love was a concept only designated for certain people or for a certain age. He worried about he knows in his heart that he worked entirely too much but could not bring himself to stop, and as a matter of fact that he only wanted to push himself to do more, to _be_ more. He wonders aloud if his only purpose in life is truly to work and then die. He fretted over countless botched interactions with patients and the general public, and how he doubted that anybody at all would ever wish to love someone as awkward and as plain as he was.

By the time he felt as though he had fully emptied his soul, Harvey had practically forgotten that he was talking to another person; a near stranger at that! His cheeks went scarlet as he remembered all of this and the mortification sets it, and he simply looked directly down and waited for impact. He has crossed so many boundaries, spilled so much of his very soul out to someone who probably only asked about his troubles to be polite. There was absolutely no way that any kind of relationship could now be salvaged out the destitute mess that he just made. At the very kindest, Elliott could respond with polite awkwardness and a few kind words while he sought an easy escape from the situation. At the worst, he could be belittled, mocked, or shouted at for being so ridiculous, for overreacting to any display of genuine affection, for being so _stupid_ for a man who was supposed to be smart...

Elliott responded by pulling him into a tight, sincere hug.

“I will not pretend to know of the full extent or have full knowledge of that which pains you so.” The author’s voice was gentle with sincerity, his hands warm on his back and words sweetly whispered into his ear. “But what I am positively certain of is that you are _not_ the destitute, washed up, uninteresting man that your brain is being cruel enough to have you believe. You are the most exceptional, kind-hearted, and thorough doctors that I have encountered in all of my twenty-eight years. Please know that I make no exaggeration in that you completely and utterly surpassed my expectations and wildest dreams of what a primary care physician should be. I have had so many not believe my pain, or simply give up on me thanks to the chronic nature of that condition…but not you. You care so deeply and have done an immeasurable amount for this community, and though none of us truly show our appreciation like we absolutely should be, we _all_ think immensely highly of you. Why, someone would have to be out of their mind not to want the world for you! Furthermore, there is not a soul on this planet that does not have traits or hobbies that are unique to them. You are not as bland as your mind is currently having you believe, not to mention that you are divinely handsome! You have not wasted the days of yesteryear on your career; your life has still only begun, and any individual would be more than lucky to have you. And for those dark thoughts that trouble you that there are simply no easy answers for…Well, I may not be able to do much to shoo them away, but I am more than willing and in want to sit here with you as they pass, like grains of sand swept up by the passing tides. I am here…to be your friend.”

The tears had long since gathered in his eyes and begun to drift down his face by this point, but somehow Harvey knew that Elliott would not mind. He buried himself into the other’s embrace now, returning the affectionate hug as the two of them were utterly soaked by the cool rain. His silent, cathartic crying mixed with the falling water above and felt as though it washed into the ocean waves below, and when they eventually parted to look at each other more meaningfully in the eyes, he was most astounded (and quite a bit endeared, if he was honest) to see the moisture cascading down his new, dear friend’s face as well. It was instinctual for him to reach up with one hand and gently wipe a tear from beneath his eye, and though the two of them immediately blushed profusely and readjusted the umbrella to shield them from the increasing downpour, it was a definite that neither of them minded any of this at all.

* * *

He and Harvey had begun to make a regular occurrence of dining together _at least_ once a day, and Elliott had quickly fallen into the comfortable familiarity of this routine. Tonight, Harvey decided to accompany him to the Stardrop Saloon, where the two of them partook in some delightful wine and the very protein-rich special that Gus had on the menu that evening. He was feeling loose and _bold_ , and so he was a little more apparent in his attempts to make his flirting a bit more notable.

“You know…Whoever eventually locks you into dating is certainly going to be a lucky one~” “Are your eyes a backroad? Because I just go lost in them~” “Your handsomeness is comparative to the most eloquent epic written by each of history’s greatest poets, composed in masterpiece that transcends all belief and time!”

Harvey received all of them with quite a bit of blushing and profuse, stuttering thanks, but he still did not seem to _quite_ be getting the memo. As the music grew louder and people began to dance around the bar, drunk either on their joy in life, the love they shared with their dancing partner, or on alcohol, Elliott decides that he has in him a few seconds of insane courage. He leads his dear friend away from their table, gently reassuring his anxieties about being judged for his ‘two left feet’ and beginning to dance slowly and sweetly with him despite the general music being that to inspire more bold moves. Harvey relaxes into him nearly immediately, his cheeks still blazing but wide, sparkling eyes never leaving his own as he sets his arms around his neck.

“I…You have been complimenting me all evening, but…I truthfully think that _you_ are the one whose beautiful is beyond compare,” the doctor said sweetly as their faces naturally dipped toward one another’s so that their words could be heard more clearly. “You are genuinely the most attractive, captivating man I have ever m-met…No, you are the most magnificent _person_ I have ever met and had the pleasure of being so c-close to- Ah!”

Five seconds of insane courage. Elliott’s kiss to Harvey was gentle, meant to gauge how his dear friend would react, but it deepened immediately when Harvey’s lips enveloped around his in return. The entire saloon could have been watching as they lost themselves in this grand gesture of pure, mutual love; they only knew of each other. 

* * *

“My darling, it is long past time for you to get some sleep. You have done more than enough writing today.” Harvey stood behind his darling boyfriend and rubbed his shoulders, gently gathering his partner’s lengthy hair back and beginning to gently braid it. “Come to bed, you will still be brilliant and creative tomorrow~”

“But I have just gotten to a _very_ interesting part,” Elliott whined in complaint, as though he were a petulant child, but the yawn silencing his protest was a rather incriminating giveaway. “…Hmph…”

“Now, now, don’t you get smart with me,” Harvey said affectionately, bringing his arms around him and slipping the pen from his boyfriend’s loosened grasp. “As your doctor, I am prescribing you a pair of cozy pajamas and a good night’s sleep. No negotiations about it!”

“Oh, I suppose if they _are_ doctor’s orders~” Elliott hummed, leaning back to stretch out his back and arms before allowing himself to be gently led to his bedroom. “Hmm…What if my muse flees in the morning light…? I would hate to lose the rate at which I was going…”

“I understand, my dear, but I am certain that your muse shall return to you in due time. There will be much more time for you to craft your literary genius when you are much more well rested,” Harvey insisted gently, gently adjusting his Eli’s braid to the side as he changes him into a pair of his silken pajama sets. “You are just so _beautiful_ , my dear~”

As he moved to touch his love’s face affectionately once more, Elliot lifted his hand to gently cover his while pressing a tender kiss into his slightly cupped fingers. “Mm…You are my greatest muse, my most handsome darling~”

Despite his being more acclimated to the praise that his dear man constantly put out for him, Harvey could not help but become flush once more, chuckling sweetly to himself as he leans down to kiss his lover on the forehead. “My sweet romantic honey. Now, let me get you tucked into bed…”

“Why don’t you sleep here with me?” Elliot asked abruptly as he settled in, his eyes searching Harvey’s with both a pout of confusion and a confused knit of his eyebrows. “I know you have been going to the couch instead, or falling asleep at your desk, but…I would much rather be able to embrace you against the cold of the night.”

“I-I!” Harvey stammered at once, his own growing hot as he realized just how silly it sounded that he not be joining his boyfriend of several months in such an intimate place when they already had several even more intimate, private encounters with one another. “I simply did not want to cross any boundaries you may have with the notion. It is, after all, a type of intimacy that I have…truthfully never shared with another person beyond a few singular hours post a one-night affair. I didn’t want to make you at all uncomfortable, but it just always feels so silly to bring up when I think about saying it aloud, and-”

Elliott, his gentle and compassionate Elliott, cupped his hands and brought a kiss to each and every one of his fingers until his anxious rambling slowed to a stop and he was grinning like the lovesick fool he knew himself to be. Once satisfied, his writer opened up the bedsheets invitingly, and Harvey wasted no further time changing into his own sleep clothes and happily snuggling up beside his dearest. That ensuing night of sleep was the best that either of them had enjoyed in years, and the arrangement became a permanent fixture.

* * *

“Do you suppose that you would want children?”

The question completely took Elliott off-guard. He and his still recently-wed husband were simply enjoying a regular early morning in their home, which had been built several months prior by Robin as a massive upgrade to what was once his run-down beachside home. He had come out on their wrap-around porch to admire the tranquility of the sea while his husband prepared their breakfast and morning coffee, so the last question he was expecting his mild-mannered, shy husband to ask was such a major question so early in the day and so spontaneously.

Nevertheless, his poor love looked as though he may positively burst from his obviously being flustered and bound with apprehension, so he quickly tried to recover from nearly dropping his fresh mug of coffee. “I-I mean! I apologize, my love, but that was rather…unexpected. Truthfully, I would love to have children. Am I correct in predicting that you feel the same?”

“W-well, I…Yes. Very much so,” Harvey admitted with minimal hesitation as he took his usual seat at his side. “I have dreamed of having children in my life since I was quite young…since I was freshly graduated with my graduate degree, truthfully. I wasn’t sure when the best time to bring it up would be, but…I must admit, the idea of having them as soon as we are mutually ready is rather exciting.”

“I must admit that I concede to that notion wholeheartedly,” Elliott said warmly, pressing a tender kiss to the love of his life’s temple as his eyes drifted back to the horizon. “I must say that I am not eager to jump into that section of our lives straight away, as I would like a bit more time to simply enjoy being a newlywed couple and living our own independent lives. Still, please note that I am wholeheartedly for having children sooner rather than later, and that I still cherish the hope of those sweet days, memories, and unique experiences that raising our own family will bring.”

“A-agreed!” Harvey said, snuggling up to his side and beneath his usual spot beneath one of his draped arms. “Please know that I highly value spending time with you and only you just as highly as I regard the idea of us expanding our family. I just…I have wanted them for so many days. I used to think that my opportunity to have them were long passed, and I simply cannot conceive of a more suitable person and more loving, extravagant person that I want to raise children with.”

Elliott’s heart was warm, and his chest felt fuzzy with giddy affection, so much so that his words failed him for words that would convey all that he felt in those moments, so he settled instead for pressing a deep, tender kiss to Harvey’s lips. The taste of coffee mingled on his own lips now before he had sipped on his mug, causing him to giggle softly and lovingly brush Harvey’s drooping bangs from his forehead.

“You taste so much like coffee, even before you have had any yourself~” He hummed both flirtatiously and teasingly.

Harvey wrinkled his nose playfully and sat himself right on Elliott’s lap, causing the other man to grin and bring him closer for another intimate kiss and for getting handsy. “And _you_ taste like fresh pomegranates!”

Needless to say, Elliot was _quite_ certain that if it were possible for either of them to become pregnant by the same way a woman might, one of them very well would have been by the time they got around properly to their breakfast.

* * *

“We certainly have come a long way, haven’t we?”

As he said it, Harvey could not help but to feel that this was a vast understatement to the amount that he and his spouse had mutually changed for the better and each other, but it was the thought that came to his mind as he cuddled with his life partner in their kitchen. Their most darling, treasured children were beginning to move around upstairs, and so would begin another day of the chaos of having a large family that was constantly fueled by and filled with love. For now, the doctor could simply spend a few more quiet moments with the man who he loved so dearly and had been wed to for nearly fifteen years now.

“We certainly have,” Elliott mused, his green eyes forever twinkling as brilliantly as they once did when they were both considerably younger. “And I cannot imagine anyone who I would have rather spent it all with. You make me a better man, husband, and father every day, my love. Perhaps one day I shall find the words to express it to you properly~”

“Oh, my honey, you already have. Look at this wonderful life we have shared and continue to share,” Harvey murmured as he embraced his husband, fingers gently gliding through his hair all the while. “What more could I have possibly dreamed of? This is all so beyond my wildest fantasy, even after all of this time. I know in my heart that I will always feel this way~”

“I could not have possibly put it better myself,” Elliott replied before enveloping him in a kiss. It was less wrought by desire than those they once shared, but it is nevertheless sweet, overflowing with sincerity and requited affections unbound.

_“Daaaaaddd, Paaaapaaaa, I can’t find my tennis shoes!!”_

_“PAAAAPAAA SYLVIA IS HOGGING THE HAIRDRYER!”_

_“I AM NOT, I JUST GOT HERE!”_

Amidst this cacophony of noises erupting all at once upstairs, their toddler peeked their sleepy head out of their room, bleary-eyed and messy-haired. Elliott chuckled, setting the coffee pot to brew properly and pressing a brief kiss to Harvey’s lips once more before heading upstairs to begin helping out their much, much beloved children begin their days. Harvey smiled after him before collecting their youngest, pressing a kiss to the top of their head and beginning to speak softly to ease them gently into the waking world.

_Perhaps my Eli and I looked were both looking with melancholy to our pasts, which had been so fraught with troubles and hardships, when we met…But now we are both heading toward an ever-new, ever-changing future in the life we share together as a family, and it is golden and bright._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAHHHH IT IS STILL SO WILD TO THINK THAT THIS PROJECT IS DONE! Also, fun fact: This story is my first fully-completed work on AO3!!! *Confetti, streamers, the works!* 
> 
> If you, my lovely readers, would like to request further SDV content from me, PLEASE consider checking out "For Which This Valley Was Named", which is my request-based and original small-project base for this game that I love so very much! Requests are very much open, and I hope sincerely to see you all there and on further works of mind. Regardless, thank you so very, very, very much for being here with me at the end of such a long and passionate labor of loves' journey, and as always, please remember to leave kudos/bookmark/subscribe/leave a comment if it so compels you! ♥♥♥


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